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DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIG  TRAGEDY 


PART  I 
DEATH  AND  THE  DEAD 


BY 

LUCIA  CATHERINE  GR AEME ;  GRIEVE,  A.  M. 


SUBMITTED   IN   PARTIAL   FULFILMENT   OF   THE   REQUIREMENTS 
FOR   THE   DEGREE   OF   DOCTOR   OF  PHILOSOPHY 

IN  THE 

Faculty  of  Philosophy 
Columbia  University 


NEW  YORK 
rvlAY,  1898 


/ 


DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY 


PART  I 
DEATH  AND  THE  DEAD 


BY 

LUCIA  CATHERINE  GRAEME  GRIEYE,  A.M. 

It 


SUBMITTED   IN   PARTIAL   FULFILMENT   OF   THE   REQUIREMENTS 
FOR   THE   DEGREE   OF   DOCTOR   OF   PHILOSOPHY 

IN   THE 

Faculty  of  Philosophy 
Columbia  University 


NEW  YORK 
M:ay,  1898 


3jD44^V 


Co  mp  iHotI)£r 


ivi504726 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Introduction 7 

Bibliography 10 

CHAPTER  I.     Views  Regarding  Death 13 

Universality  of  death.  ''Stability  of  burial  customs.  To  the  Greeks  death 
was  dark,  unavoidable,  fated,  calamitous ;  at  times,  desired  and  welcomed ; 
a  separation  from  friends.  Farewells  to  nature.  Bad  luck  in  name  of 
death,  in  representations  and  imitations  ;  in  dreams  of  death ;  in  uninten- 
tional homicide.  Superstition  regarding  gifts  from  enemies.  •  Philosophic 
views  of  the  Tragedians;  al^i/fj;  the  Eleusinian  teachings,  rewards  for 
initiated,  punishment  for  uninitiated  and  mockers ;  Kaufmann's  view ; 
Eleusinian  tone  of  tomb  inscriptions.     Death  full  of  uncertainties. 

CHAPTER  II.     Condition  and  Powers  of  the  Dead 33 

^  The  soul,  according  to  Homer  ;  its  size ;  its  mode  of  departure  ;  its  un- 
substantiality.  Ghosts;  frequent  in  Greek  story;  various  sorts;  cloud- 
images  ;  apparitions ;  phantoms  in  dreams.  Stage  ghosts.  Ghosts  of 
murderers  ;  of  animals.  Stories  in  Pausanias.  Resurrection  ;  transforma- 
tion ;  transmigration  ;  plurality  of  souls ;  external  soul.  Consciousness  of 
the  dead  ;  readiness  for  vengeance ;  power  over  dreams,  and  gift  of  prophecy. 

^  Life  in  Hades  a  continuation  of  life  on  earth,  in  occupation,  character,  mis- 
fortunes. Influence  on  the  future  life  of  the  present,  of  burial  rites,  of 
initiation,  of  a  good  life.     Immortality  of  the  soul. 

CHAPTER  III.     The  Other  World  and  Those  Who  Dwelt  There  .    53 
The  journey  of  the  soul.     On  wings  ;  Nike-Eros  ;  the  butterfly.     Charon, 
unknown  to  Homer  ;  a  popular  myth.     The  ship.     Charon  in  Euripides. 
5]  S 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Hermes,  god  of  sleep  and  of  death  ;  the  Chthonian  and  the  Olympian  god. 
Death  a  journey  by  land ;  with  horses.  Marriage  of  the  soul  to  Hades ; 
testimony  of  the  vases  and  stelae,  of  the  Tragedians,  of  the  inscriptions  ;  the 
Apulian  amphorae.  Persephone.  Thanatos,  double  of  Hermes,  a  myth- 
god,  the  physician;  in  the  Alcestis ;  an  epichthonian  deity.  Offices  of 
Thanatos,  Hermes  and  Charon.  Hades,  true  god  of  the  lower  world  ;  re- 
ceiver of  the  dead ;  judge  ;  in  Homer ;  in  Tragedy.  Realm  of  Hades ; 
underground  or  in  the  west ;  unattractive  ;  descriptions.  Tartarus  ;  future 
punishments  and  rewards.  Isles  of  the  blest.  The  dog.  Other  dwellers 
in  Erebus.  Hecate.  Erinyes;  described  by  the  Tragedians;  their  func- 
tion as  avengers  ;  their  Grove  at  Athens ;  their  cult. 


[6 


INTRODUCTION 

Ancient  Greek  life  was  divided  into  so  many  small  separate 
streams,  and  developed  so  rapidly  towards  both  its  perfection 
and  its  decay,  that  very  few  statements  can  be  true  either  of 
the  whole  people  or  of  the  whole  period.  While  undoubtedly 
many  customs  survived  through  centuries,  at  the  same  time 
fashions  changed  from  generation  to  generation  in  even  the 
most  important  points;  the  contact  with  outside  nations,  the 
introduction  of  foreign  religions,  and  the  experience  of  new 
forms  of  government,  radically  and  continually  affected 
thought  and  life  throughout  the  entire  nation.  Besides,  though 
homogeneous  in  race,  and  to  a  certain  extent  in  language,  the 
Greeks  were  far  from  being  so  in  any  other  respect.  In  the 
separate  states,  the  development  was  remarkably  uneven,  in- 
dividualism was  the  most  striking  characteristic,  and  every 
city  and  hamlet  prided  itself  on  legends  and  practices  pecu- 
liarly its  own. 

The  study  of  Greek  life,  to  be  properly  understood,  should 
be  taken  up  country  by  country  and  period  by  period.  Here- 
tofore this  has  not  been  possible ;  now,  with  the  multitudes  of 
inscriptions  of  all  sorts  coming  daily  to  the  surface,  with  the 
works  of  long-lost  authors,  vases  and  gems,  temples  and 
palaces,  perpetually  unearthed,  we  may  hope  ultimately  for  a 
fairly  intelligible  reconstruction  of  the  daily  life  and  feeling  of 
that  great  race  to  whom  we  owe  the  best  of  our  culture  and 
the  greater  part  of  our  civilization. 

In  the  following  pages  I  have  attempted  to  touch  but  one 

phase  of  that  multitudinous  life,  the  ideas  regarding  death,  in 

but  one  city  and  age,  the  Vth  century  at  Athens.     Convinced 

that  the  later  writers,  like  Lucian,  were  not  to  be  depended 

7]  7 


3  DEA  TH  AND  BURIAL   IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  \  [g 

on,  for  the  Greeks  had  no  true  archaeological  sense,  I  went  to 
those  confessed  reflectors  of  daily  life,  the  three  great  Trage- 
dians. To  be  sure,  but  a  small  portion  of  their  works  remains 
to  us,  but  from  what  is  left,  many  stray  facts  can  be  gleaned, 
which,  if  placed  together  in  the  light  we  now  have  from 
archaeological  sources,  give  some  idea  of  what  was  in  the 
popular  mind  of  that  day. 

Aristophanes  also  throws  some  light  on  these  subjects,  but 
his  uncurbed  love  of  burlesque  makes  him,  in  the  present  state 
of  our  knowledge,  unsafe  as  a  guide.  Similarly  Plato,  because 
of  his  playful  exaggeration  when  speaking  of  popular  notions, 
and  the  large  infusion  of  his  own  fancies  into  what  he  com- 
mends, is  not  generally  to  be  trusted.  Demosthenes  and  the 
other  orators,  living  in  the  IVth  century,  under  entirely  differ- 
ent conditions,  are  of  but  little  use  for  our  present  purpose. 
It  is  otherwise  with  Homer ;  though  belonging  to  an  age 
grown  legendary,  he  remained  a  sort  of  standard  to  which 
many  things  were  referred ;  aside  from  that,  through  the  large 
familiarity  with  his  works  possessed  by  every  educated  man 
in  Athens,  his  influence  must  have  been  very  great  in  shaping 
and  directing  thought.  To  Pausanias  also  I  have  often  re- 
ferred ;  for  he  was  by  nature  and  afiinity  an  antiquarian,  and, 
unlike  Lucian,  sincere  and  earnest,  preserving  many  valuable 
details,  and  if  sometimes  mistaken,  not  so  through  am  \  fault 
of  his  own.  Fragments  of  the  Tragedians,  being  often 
but  short  quotations  and  frequently  wholly  detached  from 
their  context,  I  have  in  general  avoided  as  untrustworthy  to 
settle  a  disputed  point,  and  have  used  only  to  express  more 
tersely  or  in  better  language  ideas  found  somewhere  else ;  but 
where  they  falsify  a  universal  negative,  I  have  given  them  the 
benefit  of  the  doubt  in  so  far  as  to  leave  the  point  undecided. 

The  testimony  of  actual  excavators  is  beyond  question  the 
best,  and  on  that  I  have  rested,  wherever  available,  as  an 
ultimate  authority.  The  study  of  the  vases  I  have  found  in- 
valuable; that  of  the  tombstone  reliefs  only  less  so;  for  in  both, 


9] 


INTRODUCTION 


the  influence,  especially  of  Euripides,  beginning  in  this  Vth  cen- 
tury, was  long  the  dominant  tradition.  Sepulchral  inscriptions 
were  rare  in  this  century,  and  the  tradition  running  through 
those  of  succeeding  ages  was,  for  the  most  part,  of  a  later 
beginning,  so  that  I  have  used  them  but  sparingly.  The  small 
but  excellent  treatises  of  Kaufmann  and  Iwanowitsch  have  been 
of  much  use  to  me;  the  former  especially  in  throwing  light  on 
the  influence  of  the  Mysteries.  The  latter  came  into  my  hands 
just  as  my  work  was  about  completed;  had  I  known  before  of 
the  existence  of  this  exhaustive  study,  I  might  have  hesitated 
to  attempt  anything  on  a  subject  so  nearly  the  same.  As  it  is, 
except  where  he  has  formed  his  statements  on  fragmentary 
evidence  or  by  recasting  troublesome  texts,  wherever  our 
paths  lay  together  we  have  arrived  independently  at  substan- 
tially the  same  conclusions.  Rohde's  brillant  work  was  a  little 
disappointing  for  this  period,  since  he  draws  very  largely  on  late 
authors.  After  going  through  Homer  carefully  myself  and 
drawing  my  own  conclusions,  I  found  Buchholz  so  complete 
and  overflowing  and  perfectly  sane,  that  I  have  preferred  citing 
his  pages  rather  than  entering  into  any  discussions  of  my  own. 
Prof.  Percy  Gardner's  works  have  been  of  especial  value  to  me, 
more  particularly  when  supplemented,  as  they  were  continually, 
by  kindly  advice  and  criticism  on  my  own  work  during  a  year 
spent  in  Oxford  ;  and  I  take  this  opportunity  to  express  to  him 
the  gratitude  I  feel. 

Thanks  are  due  to  Prof.  E.  D.  Perry  and  Prof.  J.  R.  Wheeler 
of  Columbia  University,  under  whose  supervision  this  little 
treatise  has  been  wrought  out;  as  well  as  to  Miss  A.  M.  A.  H. 
Rogers  of  Oxford,  and  to  teachers  and  fellow-students  in  both 
Universities  who  have  helped  to  lighten  the  task.  Nor  can  I 
forget  that  to  Prof  A.  C.  Merriam,  of  Columbia  College,  under 
whom  this  work  was  begun,  and  to  his  memory,  I  owe  the  im- 
petus which  has  sent  me  on  my  way,  and  much  of  the  encour- 
agement which  has  assisted  me  over  places  which  seemed  too 
difficult  for  me  to  tread. 


lO  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [lo 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Aeschyli  Tragedies.     Ed.  Weil,     Lipsis :  Teuhner,  1889. 

Sophoclis  Trag(Ed7(E.     Ed.   Dindorf.     Lipsise :   Teubner,  1889. 

Euripidis  Tragcedice.     Ed.  Nauck.      Lipsias :  Teubner,  1880. 

Pausania  Descriptio  Grcecicz.      Ed.  Schubatt.      Lipsise :  Teubner,  1881. 

Homeri  Ilias.     Ed.  Dindorf.     Lipsiae  :  Teuljner,  1890. 

Homer's  Odyssey.     Ed.  W.  W.  Merry.     Oxford,  1889. 

Tragicorum  Gracorum  Fragmenta.     Ed.  Nauck.     Lipsise,  1889. 

Epicorum  Grcecormn  Fragmenta.     Ed.  Kinkel.     Lipsite,  1877. 

Lucianus,     Ed.  Weise.     Lipsite,  1847. 

Pliiiarchi  VitcE  Parallelce.     Ed.  Sintenis.      Lipsias,  1873. 

Bacchylides.     Ed.  F.  G.  Kenyon.     London,  1897. 

Kaibel :  Epigrammata  Graeca  ex  labidibus  conlecta.     Berolini,  1878. 

Preger  :  Inscriptiones  Gracse  Metricce.     Lipsise,  1891. 

Dittenberger :  Sylloge  Inscriptionum  Grsecarum.     Lipsiae,  1883. 

C.  M.  Kaufmann :  Die  Jenseitshoffnungen  der  Griechen  u.  Romer.  Frei- 
burg, 1897. 

G.  hvaitozvitsch :  Opiniones  Homeri  et  Tragicorum  Graecorum  de  Inferis. 
In  Berliner  Studien,  Vol.  16.     1895-6. 

Rohde  :  Psyche.     Leipzig,  1894. 

G.  Perrot :  La  Religion  de  la  Mort.     In  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  1895. 

K.  Robert :  Thanatos.      Berlin,  1879. 

Brneckner   u.   Pernice :    Ein    Attischer    Friedhof.     In   Athen.  Mitth.,   1893, 

PP-  73-191- 

Stackelberg :  Die  Graber  der  Hellenen.     Berlin,  1835. 

P.  Gardner:  A  Sepulchral  Relief  from  Tarentum.    In  Journ.  Hell.  Studies,  1884. 

Furtw angler  :  Altlakonisches  Relief.     In  Athen.  Milth.,  1882. 

Conze  :  Attische  Grabreliefs.     Berlin,  1893-. 

P.  Gardner:  Sculptured  Tombs  of  Hellas.     London,  1896. 

F.  Ravaisson  :  Le  Monument  de  Myrrhine.     Paris,  1876. 

E.  Pot  tier  :  Les  Lecythes  blancs  attiques.     Paris,  1883. 

P.   IVo Iters  :  Rotfigurige  Loutrophoros.     In  Athen.  Mitth.  1891,  pp.  371-405. 

Monunienti  Inediti  delV  Instituto.     Roma,  1827- 1885. 

Passerii  Picturse  Etruscorum,     Roma,  1 767-1775. 

Recueil  de  Gravures  d'apr^s  des  Vases  Antiques  (^Hamilton  Collection'). 
Naples,  179 1-5. 

Furtwangler  :    Collection  Sabouroff.     Berlin,  1883-7. 

Gerhard :  Apulische  Vasenbilder.      Berlin,  1845. 

Gerhard  :  Auserlesene  griechische  Vasenbilder.     Berlin,  1840-1858, 

Benndorf :  Griechische  u.  sicilische  Vasenbilder.      Berlin,  1868. 

Geiiick  u.  Furtwangler  :  Griechische  Keramik.     Berlin,  1883. 

Dumont  et  Champlain  :  Les  Ceramiques  de  la  Grece  Propre.     Paris,  1888. 

Rayet  et  Collignon  :  Histoire  de  la  C^ramique  Grecque.     Paris,  1888. 


1 1  ]  INTR OD  UCTION  1 1 

A.  de  la  Borde:  Collection  des  Vases  Grecs  de  M.  le  Comte  de  Lamberg, 
Paris,  1823-4. 

Leiiormattt  et  De  IVitie :  Elites  des  Monuments  C^ramographiques.  Paris, 
1844-1861. 

y.  Aliliingen:  Ancient  Inedited  Monuments.     London,  1822. 

E.  Robinson:  Catalogue  of  Greek,  Etruscan  and  Roman  Vases.  (Boston  Mu- 
seum.)    Boston,  1893. 

Collection  Caniille  Lecuyer:  Terres-Cuites  Antiques.     Paris,  1882. 

Telfy:  Corpus  Juris  Attici.     Pestini  et  Lipsiee,  1868. 

Gilbert:  The  Constitutional  Antiquities  of  Sparta  and  Athens.     London,  1895. 

C.  R.  Kennedy:  Demosthenes,  Vol.  IH.     London,  1880. 

P.  Gardner:  New  Chapters  in  Greek  History.     London,  1892, 

Farnell:  Cults  of  the  Greek  States.     Oxford,  1896. 

Z.  Dyer:  The  Gods  in  Greece.     New  York,  1894. 

Harrison  and  Verrall :  Mythology  and  Monuments  of  Ancient  Athens.  Lon- 
don, 1890. 

M.  Collignon  :  Manual  of  Mythology  in  Relation  to  Greek  Art.  Translated 
by  J.  E.  Harrison.     London,  1890. 

Frazer:  The  Golden  Bough.     London,  1890, 

Hartland :  The  Legend  of  Perseus.     London,  1894-5. 

G.  F.  Creuzer  :  Symbolik  u.  Mythologie.     Leipzig,  1836-42. 

Baumeister :  Denkmaler  des  klassischen  Alterthums.  Miinchen  u.  Leipzig, 
1885-8. 

M.  Collignon:  Manual  of  Greek  Archaeology.  Transl.  by  J.  H.  Wright.  Lon- 
don, i886. 

Tsountas  and  Manatt:  The  Mycenaean  Age.      Boston,  1897. 

Buchholz:  Die  Homerischen  Realien.     Leipzig,  1871-85. 

H.  Blilmner:  Leben  u.  Sitten  der  Griechen.     Leipzig,  1887. 

Gardner  and  Jevons:   Manual  of  Greek  Antiquities.     London,  1895. 

Daremberg  et  Saglio:  Dictionnaire  des  Antiquites.     Vol.  IV.     Paris,  1896. 

Roscher:  Lexikon  der  griech.  und  rom.  Mythologie.     Leipzig,  1884-. 

Papers  of  the  American  School  at  Athens,  1882-97. 

The  following  are  also  recommended  : 

Fr.  Winiewski:  De  Euripidis  ad  extremam  hominis  sortem  spectantes  tractandi 
ratione.  Progr.  Acad.  Miinster,  1890.  (Other  papers  by  this  same  author  cited 
by  Iwanowitsch.) 

De  natura  et  indole  animarum  ex  sententia  Euripidis.  (Schluss  der  vorstehen- 
den  Abhandlung.)     Progr.  Miinster,  1864. 

C.  F.  Hermann:  De  vestigiis  institutionum  veterum,  imprimis  Atticorum  per 
Platonis  de  legibus  libros  indagandis,     Marburgi,  1836. 

Collignon:  Note  sur  les  ceremonies  funebres  en  Attique.  Annales  de  la  Fa- 
cult6  de  Bordeaux,  1879. 


1 2  J^F.A  TH  AND  B  URIA  L  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  V  [12 

jfCumanudis  :  'Attik?}^ ''Einypa(l)al ''ETrirv/ifiioi.     Athens,  187 1. 

•y.  Girard :  Le  Sentiment  religieux  en  Grdce. 

J.ehrs :  Vorstellungen  der  Griechen  iiber  Fortleben  nach  dem  Tode.  Pop- 
-xilare  Aufsatze  aus  dem  Alterthum.     Leipzig,  1875. 

Furtwdngler  :  Idee  des  Todes.     Freiburg,  1855. 

E.  Maas:  Orpheus.     Miinchen,  1895. 

Reisacker:  Bie  Todesgedanke  bei  den  Griechen.  Jahr.  Konig.  Gym.  zur 
Trier,  1862. 

M.  M.  Daniel:  A  Future  Life  as  represented  by  the  Greek  Tragedians.  Clas. 
Rev.,  vol.  iv.  London,  1890. 

Frazer:  Pausanias' Description  of  Greece.     Oxford,  1898. 

Catalogue  of  Vases  in  the  British  Museum,  London,  1893. 

Note. — In  the  first  list  given  above  all  the  chief  authorities  cited  in  the  follow- 
ing pages  are  included,  and  they  are  referred  to  by  the  authors'  names.  Where 
reference  is  made  to  other  books,  the  whole  title  is  given.  When  fragments  of  the 
Tragedians  are  cited,  A.  stands  for  Aeschylus,  S.  for  Sophocles,  and  E.  for 
Euripides. 


CHAPTER  I 


VIEWS    REGARDING    DEATH 


Ever  since  the  advent  of  the  human  race,  the  law  of  death 
has  held  with  inexorable  force.  The  short-lived  generations  of 
men  have  flourished  and  faded,  like  the  leaves  from  the  trees  '.^ 

oh/  TTep  (f>v2.Xuv  yeve^,  Toir]  6e  koX  avdguv, 

and  gone — whither  the  leaves  go — who  could  tell  ?  For  some 
such  reason  there  has  always  been  a  keen  sympathy  between 
human  life  and  nature,  especially  in  her  vegetable  forms  ;  and 
among  the  Greeks  this  feeling  was  unusually  intense.  Plant- 
life  was  a  continual  parable  of  death  and  resurrection;  and  it 
is  a  significant  fact  that  Demeter,  goddess  of  the  grain,  and 
Dionysus,^  god  of  the  vine,  were  the  two  divinities  of  the  upper 
earth  most  closely  connected  with  the  dead. 

It  is  as  the  result  of  long  experience  in  watching  the  growth, 
decay,  and  resurrection  of  plants,  confirming  native  intuition, 
that  we  must  regard  the  instinctive  belief  in  the  continued  ex- 
istence of  the  soul.  For  it  is  impossible  for  philosophy  to 
prove  such  after-existence.  Plato  tried  to  do  so  in  his  im- 
mortal treatise,  the  Phaedo,  and  failed  utterly.  For  however 
cogent  his  arguments  may  be  to  those  who  wish  to  believe,  at 
the  cold  touch  of  unprejudiced  reason  they  collapse  utterly. 
He  has  to  fall  back  on  popular  superstition  and  the  teaching 
of  the  poets. 

It  is  not  when  a  nation  has  reached  its  highest  point  of  cul- 
ture that  we  must  look  for  active  belief,  but  rather  at  some 

1  //.,  6  :   146.     For  souls  compared  to  leaves,  see  Bacc/iyL,  V.,  63-7. 

-  Dyer:  Gods  in  Greece.     See  refs.  s.  v.  Dionysus,  p.  434. 

13]  13 


1 4  DEA  ril  AND  B  URIA L  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  V  [14 

period  in  its  earlier  history,  when  it  is  shaking  off  the  trammels 
of  barbarism  and  projecting  its  vague  notions  on  a  back- 
ground of  conscious  thought.  Such  a  time  was  the  Vth  century 
B.  C,  at  Athens.  When,  in  the  battle  of  Marathon,^  she 
struck  the  decisive  blow  for  the  freedom  of  Europe  from  the 
oppression  of  Asia,  at  that  same  time  she  drew  a  distinct  line 
of  demarcation  between  her  present  and  her  past.  Before  that 
she  was  but  a  small  state  among  the  many  which,  without 
unity  or  coherence,  fringed  the  south  coast  of  Europe;  from 
that  moment  she  became  a  leader  and  head,  not  merely  of  the 
brief  political  Athenian  empire,  but  of  the  great  empire  of 
thought  that  finally  conquered  even  Rome. 

In  the  burial  customs  and  beliefs,  the  most  stable  of  all  in- 
stitutions, great  changes  had  come  about.  Yet  in  the  Vth  cen- 
tury we  find  the  traces,  though  then  almost  imperceptible,  of 
an  earlier  stage  of  dark  demon-worship.  The  present  school 
of  folklore-writers  would  have  us  believe  the  latter  was  the 
original  and  only  early  stage  of  every  nation's  development; 
but  their  arguments  are  far  from  convincing.  What  came 
earlier  than  this,  in  Athens  at  least,  has  not  yet  been  dis- 
covered. Pausanias  found  curious  customs  prevailing  in  odd 
corners  of  Hellas,  that  seemed  to  have  come  down  from  primi- 
tive times ;  and  the  earlier  Spartan  tombstones  present  forms 
and  figures  which  must  have  been  survivals  even  when  they 
were  erected. 

Whenever  a  custom  shows  a  tendency  to  become  fixed,  we 
may  know  that  the  real  presence  of  the  belief  is  vanishing ; 
while  change  and  variety  denote  life  and  growth.  The  Peri- 
clean  Age  presents  many  examples  of  both  these  truths,  no- 
where more  evident  than  in  those  burial  practices,  which  con- 
tinuing, though  full  of  contradictions,  to  survive  for  many  cen- 
turies, Lucian  ridiculed  with  so  much  wit. 

But  to  Aeschylus  and  his  fellow-tragedians  they  were  still 

^  See  Creasy's  Fifteen  Decisive  Battles. 


1 5  ]  VIE  WS  HE  GA  RDING  DEA  TH  1 5 

alive  with  meaning.  To  them  the  funeral  wail,  the  solemn 
procession,  the  stone-marked  tomb,  the  prayers  and  offerings 
to  the  deceased,  were  not  an  idle  and  empty  show,  of  no 
benefit  to  the  dead  or  to  the  living.  Rather,  the  darkness  of 
death  was  a  thick  darkness  which  could  be  felt,  the  stifling 
shadow  of  the  tomb,  the  damp  gloom  of  the  vault,  the  keen 
cold  wind  of  the  sightless  cavern.     The  lower  world  was  a 

place    deprived    01    light, ^    vvKTzpoq}  avavyrjroq,^  avaAtof,*  CKSroq,^  fieT^aQ,^ 

uDmivoq,''  i^6(pog,^  Kvefaioc,^  €pe8og,^°  and  death  a  darkness  on  the  eyes." 
To  view  the  light  was  to  live;"  to  see  the  light  no  more,  to 
die. '3.  This  to  be  sure  was  a  very  materialistic  view  ;  but  it  is 
only  in  a  dead  faith  that  we  can  draw  the  line  sharply  between 
the  material  and  the  spiritual.  With  their  natural  love  of  life 
and  light  and  activity — a  feeling  strikingly  strong  among  the 
Greeks '4 — they  feared  and  dreaded  death,  not  only  as  some- 
thing dark  and  therefore  joyless,'^  but  because  of  its  silence 
and  inertness,  where  a  man  was,'^ 

oi)  ;\fep(5f,  ov  -rroddg,  oh  (ppevbg  apxcjv, 

sleeping  that  still  cold  breathless  sleep,'^  7-^^  ad  .  .  .  aTelevTov  vnvov, 

^^^.,1323-24;  y^«/'.,  808-9;  i%«'/.,  624-5;  Track.,  1 144;  Hec.,io']\  Her., 
969;  /.  A.,   1509;  et.  al.  oft. 

2i¥2>.,  1388;  Cr.,  1225.    ^Pro^w^Z.  V^/r.,  437,  852;  //:  3/.,  607. 

^ Ai.,  394;  O.  C,   1701 ;  Hec,  209;  Phoen.,  1453;  Hip.,  837;  H.  M.,  563. 

^Hip.,  1388.  T  Pro.,  433.  8  Per.,  839;  Hip.,  1416.   »  Pro.,  1129;  Hip.,  836. 

'"  O.  C,  1390;  Ai.,  395;  Hel.,  519;  Ant..^  589;  Or.,   176. 

11  Sep.,  403;  Ale,  385,  269;  Hip.,  1444.     See  also  Bacchyl.  XIII,  30-1. 

^^  A/c„  82,  272,  362;  Hip.,  1 193;  e(  al.  oft. 

"  Track.,  S29;  Ale,  18,  868,  394-5  ;  et  al.  oft. 

^^  Ale,  301  ;  Soph,  fr.,  64;  Eur.  fr.,  446;  et  al.  oft.  Eur.  makes  the  nurse 
explain  why.  Hip.,  193-7  5  ^"^  gives  a  warning, yV.,  813,  //.  6-II ;  /.  A.,  1385-6. 

15  Or.,  1084;  et  al. 

^^Pkil.,  860-1;  Ale,  404;  Per.,  840-2;  Track.,  829-30,  1169-73;  O.  T., 
967-8, 

^''  Ag.,  1450-I;  Track.,  1005,  1041-3;  At.,  831-4;  Ant.,']6.  832;  Hip.,  lyjT, 
1387;  see  also  //.,  11 :  241 ;   14:  482. 


1 6  DEA  TH  AND  B URIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TEA  GED  V  [  j  6 

from  which  neither  affection  nor  enmity  nor  interest  could 
arouse  him — -davdwuv  6'  ov6ev  aXyog  airreTai,  says  Creon/  and  Elec- 
tra  ="  cries  despairingly,  ei  ng  ear  kKei  xaptg;  hopeless  in  its  endless- 
ness,3  for, 

Tig  ■&av6vT(i)v  r/Mev  cf  "Aidov  'koKiv  ; 

a  slipping  away  even  into  nothingness  ;■*  owif  ovuav  oUh,  Alcestis 
wails,  in  spite  of  the  assurances  of  a  happy  future  life  which 
have  been  offered  to  her.  In  this  last  point,  though  we  must 
carefully  avoid  dogmatism,  we  may  clearly  trace  a  decay  in 
belief;  for  such  expressions  belong  only  to  Euripides; 
Aeschylus  never  even  hints  that  the  dead  are  nothing,  and 
Sophocles'  utterances  are  equivocal. 

Perhaps  really  the  worst  feature  of  death  was  that  it  was 
utterly  unavoidable,  that  sometime,  somewhere,  it  must  over- 
take its  victim,  and  that  there  was  no  escape.s  For  in  spite  of 
what  some  modern  philosophers  say,  those  evils  which  are 
inevitable  are  always  the  hardest  to  be  borne.  Here  courage 
and  valor  avail  nothing ;  and  the  meeker  graces  of  submission 
and  resignation  did  not  appeal  very  strongly  to  the  fanc)^  of 
the  Hellenes.  This  feeling  of  helplessness  in  the  strong  ex- 
presses itself  even  from  Homeric  times,^ 

//oZp'  o/lo//,  rfjv  oh  Tig  okEVETai  bg  ke  yEvr/Tai, 

and  in  Sophocles  only  the  words  are  changed, 

Traai  ^vaTo'ig  kfv  udpog^ 

1  O.  C,  955;   Ale,  875,  937-8;   S.  EL,  1170:    Tro.,  606-7,  638;  Cho.,  517-S. 

^  S.  EL,  356;    Tro.,  1248-9;  Ale,  1091 ;  HeL,  1402-3. 

^  H.  M.,  297,  145-6;  Ag.,  568-9,  1019-21  ;  Eum.,  647-8;  Per.,  689-90 ;  0.  C, 
1701,  1706-7  ;   FkiL,  624-5;   S.  EL,  137-9  ;  /.  T.,  481  ;  Ale,  985-6;  et  al. 

*Alc.,  387,  322,  381,  390;  /.  A.,  1251;  Iro.,  632-3;  S.  EL,  1166-7;  HeL, 
1421.  Hades  is  called  aidTjlov,  AL,  608.  See  Iwanowitsch,  in  Berliner  Studien, 
16,  p.  57-8. 

*  See  BacckyL,  III,  51-2. 

"  Od.,  24:  29. 


I  - 1  VIE  IVS  RE  GA  RDING  BE  A  TH  ly 

the  fate  of  death  is  for  all.'     Closely  akin  to  its  certainty  was 
its  relentlessness  ;  what  it  had  it  held : 

earl  6'  ovk  evi^oSov, 
a?.?Mg  TE  ndvTug  ;fot  /card  ;|;i9ovof  i?£ot 
Tia^elv  CLfieivovq  e'lalv  fj  fie'&iEvai, 

says  the  ghost  of  Darius.^ 

Like  Homer,  the  Tragedians  consider  death  the  work  of  fate,^ 
and  therefore  just  and  right/  In  Aeschylus  and  Sophocles 
especially,  it  is  often  the  work  of  some  of  the  gods.s  particu- 
larly of  Zeus,^  or  on  special  occasions  of  Phoebus, 7  Athene,^ 
etc.;  but  though  the  gods  could  slay,  they  could  not  avert  death 
even  from  the  man  they  loved.^  Sophocles  and  Euripides  have 
a  fancy  for  attributing  '°  it  to  -vxn,  an  abstraction  which  was 
rapidly  becoming  personified  in  Athens,  and  which,  curiously 
in  contrast  with  this  attribution,  was  quickly  developing  into  a 
sort  of  tutelary  divinity  of  the  city,  the  aya^?)  rvxn  of  the  legal 
inscriptions  standing  in  the  usual  place  of  the  name  of  some 
god,  which  in  Athens  would  be  Athene.  This  attribution 
may  denote  a  change  in  the  sentiment  of  the  people  towards 

1  S.  EL,  86o;  Ai7t.,  361-2;    O.  C,  1220-4;  Ak.,  21,  112-35,  H7'  4^9'  ^^  "-^-'y 
Eur.fr.,  46;  et  al. 

^  Per.,  688-90;  Ag.,  1360-I ;  Ale,  1 12-8,  132-6.     See  refs.  p.  16,  n.  3. 
'By  Moira:  Ag.,   145 1-2;   Cho.,    910-1 ;  Ale,    11,  33;  Eum.,  724;   Phil., 
331;  Ai.,  516;  et  al. 

fidipav  [-QavaTov),  Med.,  987;  Ag.,  1314,  1462,  1365;  et  al. 
jiopog  =  fate  of  death,  Ag.,  329;  Hec,  695. 
TCETvpcjTai,  Ale,  20-2,  26-7,  105,  147,  et  al. 
ocjieiAETaL,  Ale,  419. 

*  Ale,  49,  122-9,  3-4,  et  al. 

^  Sep.,  689-90;   O.    T.,  27;  Ai.,  950,970;  And.,   1204;  Ion,  1244-5;  Ale, 
297-8.     So  Bacchyl.,  V.,  134-5,  in  war,  {^avarov  te  (pspEi  ro'iccv  av  dai/xuv  -dD^i}. 

*  O.  C,  1460-1 ;  Ag.,  362-6;  Ale,  34;  et  al. 

'  Phil.,  335.  8  Ai.,  952-3. 

9  Hip.,  1339-40  ;  Ale,  52-3  ;    Od.,  3  :  236-9;  et  al. 

10(3.    T.,   263;    S.  fr.,   865;  Ale,  889;    Cyc,   605-6;    Ai.,   1028;  dvarvxoq 
Saifiuv,  S.  EL,  1 156-7. 


1 8  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [ig 

death,  or  may  be  due  simply  to  the  tendency  to  make 
Athene  the  one  supreme  divine  power  in  Athens.  It  should 
be  remarked  that  the  gods  who  send  death,  Zeus,  Apollo, 
Artemis,  Ares,  and  the  rest  of  their  circle,  are  not  the  gods 
who  receive  the  dead. 

Death  from  whatever  source  was  a  great  calamity  ;  6  ^dvajo^ 
detvbv  kukSv,  was  the  common  verdict;'  and  the  terrified  Iphi- 
geneia  declares,^  thou_p;h  later  she  retracts  it,  naKur  ^fp  Kpeiaaon  ij  kuIu^ 
^aveiv.  Sophocles'  characters  speak  3  with  no  less  certain  sen- 
timents : 

oi'K  ECTiv  oi'TU  fiupoQ  Of  'davslv  tpa. 

And  Prometheus  fears  nothing,^  since  to  him  ^avsiv  oh  fiSpmfiov. 
Death  was  felt  to  be  so  great  an  affliction  that  only  sin  against 
the  gods  could  merit  it,  and  that  it  was  therefore  a  punish- 
ment,5  so  that  Admetus  complains, 

6 pa  ae  najik,  6i)0  KUKug  TvenpaySrag, 
ovdev  -^Eovg  dpaaavraQ  av&'  brov  ■&avei. 

Among  an  emotional  people  like  the  Athenians,  by  the 
simple  reaction  of  feeling  a  morbid  desire  for  death  laid  hold 
on  them  under  the  stress  of  any  great  calamity,  and  it  was  even 
found  by  contrast  to  possess  many  advantages.  The  Chorus^ 
hearing  of  Agamemnon's  death,  cry  out, 

Kar^avElv  Kpare'r 
■KETvaLTEpa  yap  /uolpa  rye;  rvpavvidog, 

"  It  is  better  for  us  to  die,  for  death  is  preferable  to  this 
tyranny!"  and  later  they  wish,^  ju  yd  yd,  eW  ifi'  kSk^u.  But  such 
expressions  are  not  to  be  taken  seriously.     The   Greeks   in 

W.  A.,  1416 ;  H.  M.,  281-2.  2  /  ^.^  1252. 

^  Ant.,  220,  580-1  ;  Ai.,  215.  *  Pro.,  933. 

^  Ale,  246-7;  Bac,  1120-1  ;  E.  EL,  1349-55;  E.  Sup.,  496-9;  Ai.,  952-5  ; 
et  al. 

^  Ag.,  1364-5. 

7^^.,  1538;  Per.,'j\2;  A  5?^/.,  804-5 ;  O.  C,  1688-90;  S.  El.,%Z2;  O.  T., 
1 157;  Ant.,  1329-33;  Track.,  16-7;  TV^.,  630-I ;  Hec.,£^^']-%\  Med.,  1 46-7  ; 
et  al.,  very  common. 


ig]  VIEWS  REGARDING  DEATH  ig 

their  moments  of  depression  found  life  full  of  evils  from  which 
none  were  exempted  :^ 

aTravr'  (nvfi/iuv  rbv  6i  aluvoc  xP^vov  ; 

and  of  which  death  was  not  the  greatest,^ 

ov  yap  -davtlv  ex&i^orov, 

nor  long  life  the  least,3 

oh6iv  yap  aXyoq  o'lov  7)  ttoTJo)  Z,6r}, 

Death  was  then  a  release  from  evils  : 

rw  yap  &av£lv  e?\,Ev&epov/xai  (ptTiaiaKTUv  kukuv, 

is  the  consolation  of  the  hunted  Danaidae ;+  a  medicine  for  sor- 
rows, ^dytarov  <pdp/uaKov,  Macaria,5  no  less  a  homeless  wanderer,  finds 
it;  and  the  tortured  Prometheus^  envies  those  who  can  so  easily 
end  their  woes.  It  was  preferable  to  blindness/  to  evil  report,^ 
to  living  among  enemies  9  and  without  friends  ;'°  and  to  the 
weary  toiler  it  was  welcome  if  merely  for  its  rest;  for  says 
Herakles,"  at  last  realizing  the  true  import  of  the  oracle : 

To'iq  yap  -^avovGi  fidx'&oq  ov  TrpocryiyveTai. 

And  Orestes,"  persecuted  by  men  and  gods,  proudly  refuses  to 
bewail  his  approaching  fate.'3  Yet  suicide  was  not  common 
except  in  case  of  overwhelming  disgrace  like  that  of  Aias,  or 
to  avoid  a  lingering  but  inevitable  death  like  Antigone;  thus 
showing  that  these  expressions  were  the  result  of  merely 
transitory  emotion.  Draco  ^t  after  cool  reflection  declares  he 
has  no  higher  punishment  for  the  greatest  crimes ;  and  in 
oaths  ^5  such  words  as,  "  If  I  speak  not  the  truth  I  ought  to  die," 
abound  as  the  strongest  form  of  asseveration. 

^Aa-.,  553-4.  ^S.  EL,  1007.  ^  S.fr.,  509;  cf.  O.  C,  1225-7. 

*A.  Slip.,  Ho2-^;  ^M/.,  463-4.  ^//i-r.,  595-6;  ^?.,  635. 

6  Rro.,  753-4;  Sep.,  336-7,  684.  '  O.  T.,  1368. 

*  Track.,  721.  3  Track.,  1236-7. 

^^  Ai.,  393.  11  Track.,  1173,  829-30.  "  /.  T.,  484-9. 

^'For  the  treatment  of  this  whole  subject,  love  of  life  and  hatred  of  death,  see 
Iwanowitsck,  pp.  10-^8  passim. 

^^Plut.  Sol.,  16.  1*  O.  T,  943-4,  661-2;   Pkil.,  1341. 


20  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [20 

But  whatever  advantages  death  might  or  might  not  possess, 
it  brought  with  it  one  great  and  certain  calamity,  the  separation 
from  friends  and  relatives.'  To  us  with  our  long-inherited  be- 
lief in  an  endless  reunion  beyond  the  grave,  perhaps  with  our 
colder  philosophy  and  boasted  greater  self-control,  the  in- 
tense agony  of  parting  from  loved  ones  felt  by  the  emotional 
and  affectionate  Athenians  seems  far-fetched  and  overdrawn, 
especially  when  we  remember  how  often  the  fate  of  war 
not  only  slew  husband  and  brother,  but  scattered  forever  the 
survivors  of  even  noble  families  into  the  hard  lot  of  slavery. 
Death  and  distance  in  such  cases  amounted  to  much  the  same 
thing,  and  the  traveller's  garb  on  the  monuments  generally  de- 
notes the  journey  to  the  tomb.^  As  we  might  expect,  very 
affecting  are  the  leave-takings,^  though  in  m^ost  cases  too  long 
for  quotation,  which  the  Tragedians  have  portrayed  for  us. 
And  while  the  groups  figured  on  the  tombstones  may  some- 
times refer  to  a  reunion,  yet  the  sentiments  expressed  are  more 
often  of  the  sorrow  of  parting,  such  as  the  following  inscrip- 
tion'*  from  the  Vth  century,  accompanying  the  representation  of 
a  lady  taking  leave  of  her  mother  and  little  daughter: 

Tievdoc  Kovpidiu  te  Trdaei  Kal  fiTjrpl  ?.nroi'aa 
Kal  TTarpl  tu  (^tvaavrt  YIoTiv^evt]  ev&aSe  Kelrai. 

Equally  touching  are  the  impassioned  farewells  to  nature.s 
like  Iphigeneia's  xa'p^  ,uoi  <pi?.ov  (paoc,  or  that  last  apostrophe  by 
Aias  before  falling  on  his  sword  on  the  sandy  Ilian  shore : 
"  And  thee,  O  present  glory  of  the  shining  day  and  chariot- 
borne  sun,  I  salute  for  the   last  time  truly  and   never  again 

1//.  il/.,  512-3;  .4/r., 876-7,  1133-4;  //?>.,  838;  Tro. ,  4SJ-8;  Med.,\oi\-i, 
1038-9;  Or.,  1018-21;  et  al. 

^See  below,  chap.  III. 

^  O.  C,  1604-21;  Ai.,  545-S2;  Tiach.,  1143-127S;  Ale,  156-392;  Hec,  402- 
43;  Her.,  574-607;  Hip.,  1391-1461;  /.  A.,  1434-I509  ;  et  al. 

*  Come  :  Attische  Grabreliefs,  FL,  66,  p.  62.  See  also  Gardner^ s  Sculptured 
Tombs  of  Hellas,  pp.  168-17 1. 

5/.  A.,  1509;  Ai.,  412-27;  Ale,  244-5,  248-9  ;  Hec,  435-7. 


2i]  VrElVS  REGARDING  DEATH  21 

hereafter.  O  light,  O  sacred  country  of  mine  own  land 
Salamis,  O  floor  of  my  father's  hearth,  and  famous  Athens, 
and  race  that  shared  my  nurture,  and  these  ye  springs  and 
rivers,  even  the  Trojan  plains,  I  call  upon,  farewell  my  foster- 
ers !  This  last  word  Aias  speaks  to  you ;  the  rest  shall  I  tell 
to  those  below  in  Hades."  ' 

This  gloomy  view  of  death  was  the  normal  Greek  attitude. 
For  though  friends  might  try  to  console  themselves  with  the 
hope  of  meeting  again,  and  the  poets  might  promise  a  world 
free  from  care  and  pain,  when  all  had  been  said  it  was  still  an 
unknown  world,  which  was  neither  home  nor  fatherland;  and 
though  all  one's  friends  might  come  thither  at  last,  it  was  still 
an  exile  and  the  time  was  long.  Little  wonder  then  that  life 
was  loved  :^ 

TO  (pug  t66'  av&puTTocaiv  ^Starov  (iXenEiv 

and  death,  especially  for  the  young,^  hated  and  feared.^  The 
whole  of  the  Alcestis  is  the  glorification  of  the  giving  in  cold 
blood  of  one  young  life  for  another  as  the  acme  of  human 
virtue.5 

Death,  then,  being  so  terrible,  was  to  be  avoided  even  in 
name.  Just  how  much  connection  was  felt  to  exist  between 
the  name  of  a  thing  and  the  thing  itself  we  do  know.  Among 
the  Semites  to  name  a  thing  was  to  call  it  into  activity,  but  we 
do  not  find  this  notion  prevalent  among  the  Indo-Europeans. 
Still  the  name  had  some  power  or  value;  the  Greeks  escaping 
the  sea  after  the  Trojan  war  carry  back  the  names  of  the  dead:^ 

VEKpuv  (pEpovraq  bv6fiaT'  etg  olxovg  ird/iiv 

ly^?.,  856-65. 

2/.  A.,  1250;  A/c,  301,  340-1,  722;  I/i/>.,  193-7;  ^- A-,  446,  537;   •S'-A-,  64; 
ei  al. 

"/.  A.,  1218-9;    Or.,  1029-30;  Ale,  55,   168,  634-5;  Kaibel,   i,  5,  6,  12,  16, 
et  al. 

*'Alc.,  62,  669-72,  681-4;    Or.,   1033-4;    Ant.,  220,   580;   Hec,  240-1,248; 
E.  El ,  221;  ei  a  I.  oft.      Plato  :  Rep.  I,  330  e. 

5  Ale,  150-5,  320-5,  425-34,  623-4,  et  al.  6  ff^i^^  39g_ 


22  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [22 

and  in  a  Vlth  century  inscription'  Phrasecleia  says  she  is  to  be 
called  Kovpri  forever,  thus  signifying  her  mystic  identification  with 
the  bride  of  Hades.  The  Greeks  were  besides  very  super- 
stitious about  words — probably  the  relic  of  some  earlier 
system  of  divination  whose  real  essence  had  been  forgotten. 
The  mention  of  death  was  a  bad  omen ;  iioipa  6vauvvfiog,  Homer^ 
says.  The  messengers  from  Corinth  will  not  at  first  say  that 
Polybus  is  dead,  but  only  that  Oedipus  is  declared  king ;  and 
Agamemnon's  herald  answers  the  Chorus  whose  curiosity  has 
has  been  stirred  by  a  vague  hint  of  the  probable  drowning  of 
Menelaus  :'* 

evtprjuov  rjjiap  ov  irpiwEi  KaKayytTiif) 
yj.u<jai)  fiiaivEiv. 

Plato^  tells  us  that  likewise  the  name  of  Hades  was  avoided: 

ol  -KoTCkol  (f>o(3ov/Lievoi  to  ovo/m  HadeS  U/.ovTuva  WCalth-glVCr  KalovCLv  avrov. 

The  name  Pluto  occurs  in  the  Tragedians^  as  an  equivalent 
for  Hades,  but  it  is  rare  and  seems  to  have  been  introduced 
chiefly  for  the  metre. 

The  visible  representation  of  death  was  still  more  ominous ; 
and  when,  during  the  Peloponnesian  War,  the  fleet  for  Syra- 
cuse was  being  sent  out,  the  fact  that  just  at  that  time  the  feast 
of  Adonis  was  being  celebrated  and  the  efiigies  of  his  dead 
body  filled  the  streets,  was  noted  with  gloomy  foreboding/ 
especially  after  the  disaster.  It  is  not  likely  that  the  Greeks 
thought  that  the  display  of  these  effigies  actually  caused  the 
disaster,  but  rather  that  it  was  a  sign  from  the  gods ;  though 
they  may  have  had  a  feeling  inherited  from  earlier  times  that 
there  was  some  evil  influence  connected  with  them.  The  re- 
lation of  cause  to  effect  is  rarely  clear  in  the  popular  mind. 

1  A'aiie/,  6.  « //.,  12:  1 16.  ^  O.  T,  939-42. 

*yi^.,  636-7,  1247;  Ale,  139,  512-21;  Hec,  180-1;  /.  A.,  855-73;  Hi/., 
797-800;  et  al.  oft. 

*  Plato  :  Cratyl.,  403  a.  «  Pro.,  8c6  ;  Ale,  360  ;  H.  M.,  808. 

"^  Plut.  Alcib.,  18;  Nic,  13;  Thuc,  6:  30;  Frazer:   Golden  Bough,  I,  284-5. 


23]  VIEWS  REGARDING  DEATH  23 

To  bring  the  fact  home  to  an  individual  by  calHng  him  dead 
was  a  degree  worse  : 

jSoi'Tiei  ?JyEa-&ai  jifj  ^avuv  Te-&vrjKEvai; 

Helen  asks  doubtfully,  and  Menelaus  finding  no  other  way  ot 
safety  answers,^ 

KaKOQ  fiev  bpvcq-  el  6e  Kepdavu  Myeiv, 
8TO(/ii6g  el/M  fLTj  davuv  7i6yu  d-avelv. 

We  must  notice  how  careful  each  is  to  put  p)  ^aviov  before  the 
inauspicious  word.  Orestes,^  when  Electra  wails  over  the 
urn,  "  Ah  me  unhappy  if  I  am  to  be  deprived  of  thy  tomb! " 
checks  her  hastily  with  the  words,  "Speak  auspiciously!" 
The  Chorus  3  in  the  Agamemnon  raging  in  fierce  helplessness 
against  Aegisthus.  snatch  up  his  last  word,  and  twisting  it  to  a 
new  meaning  as  if  they  would  wrest  fate,  cry  out,  rffjo/ziw^f 
"kkysLi;  davziv  ae.  It  was  a  piccc  of  daring,  almost  of  impiety  on 
the  part  of  Orestes,  in  keeping  with  his  rather  reckless  char- 
acter, to  bid  the  Paedagogus  report  him  as  dead ;  and  realizing 
this,  as  we  have  just  seen  he  did,  he  defends  himself  rather 
knavishly:'^ 

Ti  yap  fie  TiVirel  tov'&\  brav  ^dycj  ^avuv 
epyotai  auvu  na^eveyKufiai  kMo^  ; 
doKu  fiev,  ovdhv  pf/fxa  avv  Kepdei  nanov. 
fjdri  yap  elSov  woTiXdiag  Kal  rovg  (JO(bovc 
Tidyo)  fiarr/v  -dvijaKovrag-  eW  brav  Sofiovg 
e73u<jLV  av^ig,  £KTETL/j.?]VTai  irXeov, 

Such  a  deception,  for  different  reasons,  was  practiced  by 
Pythagoras  and  some  of  his  pupils,  by  Heraclitus,  Odysseus, 
and  others,  and  their  success  was  probably  due  not  only  to 
the  popular  superstition,  but  to  the  wonder  they  excited  that 
they  could  thus  dare  fate  and  live.  In  later  times  (beginning 
we  do  not  know  how  early),  to  be  actually  believed  dead  and 
to  have  the  funeral  ceremonies  performed,  was  a  very  serious 
matter;  for  in  that  case,  according  to  the  law  quoted  by 
Plutarch,5  the  person  was  deemed  polluted  :  M  vofxiCecv  dyvovg,  fi^S' 

^  He/.,  1050-2.  ^  S.  EL,  1209-10.  ^Ag.,  1653;  Hec,  1279-84. 

*5.  EL,  59-64.  ^  Plut.  Quaes.  Rom.,  5. 


24  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [24 

ihv  hpolq  n7<.T]aLaZ.£LV,  Oif  kKcpnpa  •yEyovei  Kal  ra(poQ  uf  te'Qvtjkogl.  leliy,  Com- 
menting on  this  law,'  describes  at  length  the  curious  process 
through  which  persons  once  really  supposed  dead  had  to  go 
to  be  restored  to  their  former  rights  as  living  men ;  and  the 
names  va-epdnOfi-oL  and  dEv-epoTio/uTroi  were  given  them.^  The 
reason  was  that  such  persons  were  considered  consecrated  to 
the  lower  gods  and  therefore  impure;  and  Herakles^  warns 
Admetus  not  to  speak  to  the  restored  Alcestis  for  three  days, 
until  she  is  freed  from  her  consecration  to  the  chthonian 
divinities. 

Since  dreams  were  often  looked  upon  as  supernatural  re- 
velations, it  was  especially  bad  to  dream  of  being  dead  or 
clothed  in  the  garments  of  the  dead ;  and  when,  early  in  this 
Vth  century,  Mardonius  sent  a  messenger  as  his  representative 
to  the  oracle,  and  that  messenger  dreamed  of  being  killed, 
it  clearly  foretold  Mardonius'  own  death.-* 

The  unintentional  causing  of  the  death  of  another  was  likewise 
ominous — though  that  may  have  been  owing  to  the  vengeance 
of  the  departed  spirit — as  when  Clytaemnestra  warns  Achilles 
lest  Iphigeneia's  death  be  of  evil  omen  to  his  marriage.^  And 
even  to  wail  too  much  for  the  dead  might  stir  up  wrath  from 
the  lower  gods.^ 

Sophocles  records  for  us  a  curious  superstition,  which, 
though  the  scene  is  laid  in  Homeric  times,  is  not  mentioned 
by  Homer,7  that  a  gift  from  an  enemy  is  fatal.^  Aias  attributed 
all  his  misfortunes  to  the  sword  given  him  by  Hector,  "  ac- 
cording to  the  popular  adage," 

ex'^P'^v  aSupa  dupa  kovk  ovr/oijua' 

and   Teucer,  gazing  on  the  dead   body   of  Aias,   moralizes, 

1  Telfy:   Corpus  Juris  Attici,  1446.  ^  Hesych.,  s.  v. 

^  Ale,  1 144-6;  see  22-3,  75-6. 

*  Flut.  Alcib.,  39;  see  Aristid.,  19;  Paus.,  4:  13:  i. 

5/.  ^.,987-9.  ^O.  C,  175 1-3. 

'Cf.  //.,  7  :   303  ff.  ^Ai.,  661-5,  1026-35. 


25]  VIEWS  REGARDING  DEATH  2$ 

"  Knowest  thou  how  at  last  Hector  though  dead  was  doomed 
to  be  thy  destruction?  Consider  before  the  gods  the  fate,  Ti-xv, 
of  two  mortals :  Hector  by  the  very  girdle  which  was  given 
him  by  this  man,  was  bound  to  the  steed-borne  car,  and  con- 
tinually racked  and  mangled  until  he  breathed  out  his  life. 
And  this  other,  Aias,  through  Hector's  gift,  the  sword,  perished 
by  its  means  through  a  deadly  fall.  Did  not  Erinys  forge 
this  sword,  and  Hades  the  fierce  workman  make  that  girdle?" 
So  too  it  will  be  remembered  the  gift  of  blood  from  Nessus^ 
caused  the  death  of  Herakles,  through  in  this  case  intentionally. 
These  were  the  inherent,  the  spontaneous,  popular  notions, 
derived,  possibly,  from  a  rude  reasoning,  from  far-traveled  re- 
ports, from  the  echoes  of  some  forgotten  cult.  However  and 
whencesoever  they  came,  they  were  the  common  heritage  of 
the  people.  But  had  the  philosophers,  the  real  thinkers,  the 
great  popular  teachers,  nothing  better  to  say?  In  later  times 
the  many  philosophical  sects,  foreign  elements  in  religion, 
as  in  the  worship  of  Dionysus  and  of  Isis,  lent  a  different  color- 
ing to  the  phraseology  at  least.  But  in  the  Vth  century,  be- 
sides the  fact  that  foreign  religions  were  not  tolerated,  phil- 
osophy— real  philosophy  concerning  thelsoul — was  only  begin- 
ning. In  the  days  of  Aeschylus  it  served  simply  to  steel  the 
heart  against  the  inevitable : 

says  Cassandra  in  despair  ^ ;  and  Prometheus,3  who  knows  he 
is  deathless,  can  very  well  advise, 

T'^v  irenpufievTjv  6e  XPV 
alaav  cpipeiv  ug  pgara,  ■)  LyvucsKovd'  on 
TO  TTJQ  avayKTjq  ear'  adr/ptrov  a-dcvog. 

Sophocles,  belonging  to  a  later  phase,  makes  Aias"*  say: 

Tov  eiiyev^  XP'^' 
1  7>-fl<-/5.,  555-81.  "^^.,1304. 

3  Pro.,  103-5.  *^''.  479-80. 


26  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [26 

And  again  he  says  :  ^ 

ocTL^  6e  ^vrjTuv  ^dvarov  bppudel  ?Jav 
fiupog  TrefvKE' 

and  when  he  is  old : ' 

fiT]  (piivai  Tov  anavTa  vim  \6yov  to  (T,  enel  <pavri, 
fS^vai  Kel^ev  (tf&ev  irep  TJKtL 
TToTiv  Sei'Tepov,  wf  rdxic^Ta, 

as  if  he  had  found  Hfe,  in  spite  of  his  many  successes,  full  of 
care  and  weariness.3  In  Euripides,  the  friend  and  follower  of 
philosophers,  we  expect  and  find  a  different  line  of  thought. 
He  is  speculative,  and  speaks  +  of  a?i.Xo  cxw°-  /^'o^.  ^^^  says  :5 

6  vovc 
ruv  KaT^avdvTuv  l^y  fiev  oh,  yvu/iijv  6'  ixsi 
a.-&dvaTov  elg  a^dvarov  al^ip'  Efxireacjv, 

something  which  comes  rather  near  our  notion  of  pure  spirit. 
The  whole  theory  however  is  abstruse,  and  al^ijp  an  entirely 
uncertain  concept.  It  was  a  Homeric  term  for  the  abode  of 
the  gods,  and  as  a  later  Athenian  inscription  calls  it  iypog 
damp,  it  was  probably  conceived  of  as  in  the  cloudy  sky,  and 
it  is  often  mentioned  interchangeably  with  ovpavdq.^  From 
various  lines  of  the  Helena''  taken  together  we  should  judge 
that  ovpavbq  was  the  place,  and  a'i-&fjp  the  substance.  But  we 
need  not  suppose  that  every  mind  held  the  same  image  of  so 
intangible  an  idea  as  al-dijp-^  and,  though  the  stone-cutter's 
thoughts  may  have  risen  no  higher  than  the  cloudy  sky,  the 
poet  and  the  seer  doubtless  looked  into  the  vast  spaces  be- 

2  <9.  C,  1225-7. 

••  See  .S".  EL,  1007,  and/r.,  509,  quoted  on  p.  19. 

^ MeJ.,  1039  ;  Ale,  21  ;   Ion,  1067  ;   /.  A.,  1508. 

^  Hel.,  1014-6;  see  iS. /r.,  487. 

^  Gardner:  New  Chapters  in  Greek  History,  pp.  330-2. 

"^  Hel.,  583-4,  33-4,  705,  1219.  605-7. 


27]  VIEWS  REGARDING  DEATH  27 

yond.  The  inscription  over  the  warriors  slain  at  Potidaea, 
432  B.  C,  reads  :  ^ 

TuvSe,  ktTi., 

and  Kaufmann,"  remarking  on  this,  adds  that  aWrip,  according 
to  Anaxagoras  and  the  other  philosophers,  is  not  the  soul- 
substance  merely,  that  is,  the  breath,  the  air,  but  Olympus,  the 
abode  of  the  gods,  Elysium  ;  he  quotes  also  two  IVth  century 
inscriptions:  3 

'Eivpvu&x'^'v  i'l^X^'^  "^"^^  V7r£p(j)ia.?i0vg  diavoiag 
aL-Qrip  vypbq  Ix^'-t  o'^//a  6e  rv/i^og  fide- 

and, 

Ov/jov  6i]  KvKvov  Kal  vTrEp<pta/iovq  diavo'iaq 
aldfjp  ?.afnrpbg  Ix^^t  aufia  61:  TVjxjioQ  ode. 

There  is  a  striking  likeness  between  these  two  which  indicates 
that  whether  by  imitation  of  the  Potidaean  one  or  not,  this 
idea  had  passed  into  the  common  terminalogy  of  the  tomb- 
stone-cutter. Sophocles,'*  too,  once  speaks  of  al^tpa  /^tyav  in  the 
sense  of  the  future  world,  with  the  word  (Hnm  used  so  often  in 
Homer  of  "putting  on"  the  dark  covering  of  earth.  And 
again  5  he  says,  u  fieyag  al^i/p,  w  Zev,  as  if  these  terms  were  equiva- 
lent. Euripides  also  speaks  of  the  ai-&cpa  fityav  into  which  Elec- 
tra^  sends  groans  for  her  father  to  hear;  and  in  addition  places 
the  damp  aether,  which  seems  to  be  the  same  thing,  far  away 
in  the  west:  ^ 

av'  vypbv  afnvTa'ujv  al'&epa  nopau  yai- 
aq  'WCkaviaQ,  aarepag  tankpovg^ 
o\ov  o\ov  akyoQ  eira-dov,  (pilai. 

People  used  to  disparage  the  Eleusinian   Mysteries  on  the 

"^Kaibel,  21;   11.,  5,  6. 

"^  Kaufniann:  Die  yeriseiiskofftmngen,  tic,  Y>-  16.     See  Ro^de,  p.  549;   and 
Iwanowitsch,  p.  73  ;  but   I  cannot  fully  accept  all  the  last  says,  especially  about 
Or.,  1086-8,  and  E.  Sup.,  1148-50. 
^  Kail) el,  41. 

^^  Ai.,  1 192.  *  O.  C,  147 1. 

6  E.  El.,  59,  '  Ion,  796-8. 


2 8  DEA  TH  AND  B  URIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  Y  [28 

ground  that  they  really  gave  but  little  comfort  concerning  the 
future  life.  But  Kaufmann,^  in  his  admirable  little  book,  has 
shown  that  they  were  not  as  ineffectual  as  was  formerly  sup- 
posed. Nagelsbach,  he  tells  us,"  in  commenting  on  the  differ- 
ences between  the  three  great  sets  of  Mysteries,  says  :  "  In  the 
Orphic,  men  sought  for  purity  and  holiness;  in  the  Dionysiac, 
for  blessedness  and  ease;  in  the  Eleusinian,  for  comfort  and 
rest  in  the  future  life."  It  will  be  remembered  in  how  much 
favor  the  Mysteries,  especially  the  Eleusinian,  were  held  ;  what 
immense  numbers  of  people,  even  from  afar,  were  initiated  ; 
and  how  carefully  the  secrets,  though  known  to  so  many,  were 
kept :  and  this  all  goes  to  show  how  deeply  these  teachings 
were  impressed  on  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  how  truly 
these  sentiments  entered  into  their  life  and  thought.^ 

When  we  look  closely  we  find  traces,  often  very  clear  ones, 
of  these  Eleusinian  teachings  regarding  the  future  life.  The 
Mystae  in  the  Frogs*'  claim  that  jiovoiq  i)iuv  belong  the  blessings 
which  Herakles  has  somewhat  irreverently  described  in  an 
earlier  passage.  The  Pseudo-Plato 5  claims  for  them  a  front 
place  in  the  realms  of  the  blest:  baoi^ /lev  ovv  h -l)  i^f/v  dai/uuv  ayat^bc 

irrE-vev-ev,  e/f  rbv  tuv  ei(T£,jwy  Xf^pov  olnii^ovrai,  h'd-a,  etC.  (a  description  of 
the  Elysian  fields),  hrav-^a  toI^  nejiviifikvoiq  kari    riq  TrpoeSpia.       It    wiU 

be  seen  that  the  uninitiated  are  not  excluded  from  blessedness 
if  they  have  led  good  lives,  but  that  the  initiated  have  the 
honor  of  the  front  rank,  a  reward  which  appealed  to  the  ambi- 
tious and  emulous  Greeks.  In  Polygnotus'  great  painting  of 
Hades,  in  the  Lesche  at  Delphi,  we  see  the  influence  of  the 
Eleusinian    Mysteries    throughout.     At  the  very  beginning*^ 

'  C.  AT.  Kauftnann:  Die  yenseitshoffnuugen  der   Griechen  u.  Romer,  1897. 
"^  Kauftnann,  p.  4. 

3  See  Fans.,  10:  31 :   11.     Note  also  the  great  popularity  of  the  name  Deme- 
trios  among  the  Modern  Greeks,  surely  a  survival. 

^  Frogs,  454-5.  154-7- 

*  Axioch.,  371  c,  d.     See  Rohde,  p.  288,  n.  i. 

*  Fans.,  10  :   28:  3. 


29]  VIEWS  REGARDING  DEATH  29 

Cleoboea  is  seated  in  Charon's  boat,  holding  the  mystic  cyst, 
Kipu76c,  on  her  knees,  receiving  honor  because  she  first  intro- 
duced the  Mysteries  into  Thasos.  On  the  tombstones  and 
vases'  we  frequently  find  this  box,  often  called  a  "jewel-box," 
represented  in  the  hands  or  on  the  knees  of  a  lady.  At  the 
end  of  Polygnotus'  painting,''  among  the  great  criminals,  are 
four  people  who  have  mocked  the  Mysteries;  a  man,  a  boy 

and  two  women  :  ol  fih  a?L/.oi  (pipov-eg  v6up  en,  Ty  6e:  ypoL  KaTeax^ac  rfjv 
i'dpiav  e'lKaaei^-  baov  6i  iv  tu  ocrpaKu  Tionrbv  f/v  rov  vSaro^,  eKx^ovaa  ka-iv  ai^ig  ef 

rbv  TTi'&ov.  Just  wherein  consists  the  severity  of  such  punish- 
ment it  is  hard  to  realize,  unless  on  the  one  hand  the  actions 
may  be  highly  symbolical,  or  on  the  other  they  may  merely 
denote  that  endless  and  unremunerative  labor,  the  doing  of  a 
simple  thing  that  yet  never  is  done,  which  was  the  Greek  ideal 
of  perfect  unhappiness.  Our  painter  seems  to  have  been  of 
that  severe  school  who  consider  sins  of  omission  as  equally 
heinous  with  sins  of  commission;  for  not  far 3  from  the  mockers 
are  two  women  carrying  water  in  broken  pitchers,  with  an  in- 
scription above  them  stating  that  they  are  "  not  of  the  initi- 
ated," ov  fiejjiVTinEvcjv.  Pindar  +  speaks  of  the  fine  rewards  in  Ely- 
sium which  await  those  "purified."  Kaufmanns  thinks  the 
Eleusinian  influence  was  very  wide  and  deep ;  and  its  effect  on 
our  three  Tragedians  he  sums  up  thus  :  "  The  fundamental  idea 
of  the  Aeschylean  works  is  that  death  is  better  than  life ;  and 
in  the  seven  surviving  tragedies  of  Sophocles  no  less  than  six 
persons  die  voluntarily,  although  they  hold  only  the  first  inti- 
mations of  a  better  existence  in  a  future  life.  And  as  far  as 
Euripides  in  his  poetic  art  departs  from  Aeschylus  and 
Sophocles,  so  near  does  he  approach  again  when  he  speaks  of 
death  or  life  ;  many  remarks  show  life  beautiful  and  agreeable, 

1  Conze,  PL  30,  68,  83  ;    Gerhard:  Ap.   Vasenb.,  PL  16,  et  al.  oft. 

*  Paus.,  10:  31  :   II.     See  Frazer's  note  on  g  9  in  his  Pans.  Descr.  of  Greece, 
1898,  VoL  VI.,  pp.  388-91. 

'  Pans.,  10  :   31 :  9. 

*  Pind.  01.  Odes.,  2,  124  ff.  ^  Kaufmann,  p.  3. 


JO  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [30 

yet  more  make  it  a  burden;  and  only  in  Euripides  do  we  al- 
ways find  verses  which  speak  openly  of  a  reward  in  the  future." 
This  seems  to  be  making  too  much  out  of  too  little.  Which 
six  of  Sophocles'  characters  he  refers  to  is  not  clear.  If  the 
six  suicides  are  intended  :  locaste,  Deianeira  and  Aias  had 
done  deeds  so  horrible  that  they  could  dread  nothing  worse 
than  their  present  life ;  Antigone  preferred  a  quick  departure 
to  the  slow  agony  of  starvation,  the  most  rational  thing  she 
could  do,  independently  of  any  thought  of  a  future  life;  and 
Haemon  and  his  mother  yielded  weakly  to  affection,  impelled 
by  the  unrelenting  curse.  If  Oedipus  and  Herakles  are  in- 
cluded, both  were  worn  out  with  long  suffering,  so  that  even 
annihilation  would  have  been  welcome.  In  Euripides'  plays 
the  Alcestis  is  a  glorification  of  life  triumphant  over  death  ; 
and  in  many  of  the  others  the  heroes  and  heroines,  with  no 
loss  of  their  heroism,  consider  no  deception  too  unworthy,  no 
impiety  too  great,  if  they  may  thereby  save  their  lives.  In 
Aeschylus,  as  far  as  his  plays  are  left  to  us,  there  is  not  one 
suicide,  no  matter  how  great  the  evil  or  disgrace.  On  the 
contrary,  Aeschylus  teaches  a  noble  and  dignified  resignation 
to  an  inevitable  evil ;  Sophocles,  that,  since  life  contains  so 
much  of  good,  the  after-life  may  not  be  so  very  bad,  and  should 
be  met  with  equanimity ;  and  Euripides,  with  his  greater  sen- 
sitiveness to  suffering  and  injustice,  that  since  life  here  has  so 
much  of  pain  and  sorrow,  and  the  gods  are  just  and  gracious, 
there  must  be  compensation  somewhere,  and  the  only  possible 
place  is  beyond  the  tomb.  These  differences  are  largely  due 
to  the  differing  temperaments  of  the  poets,  but  at  the  same 
time  their  mental  attitude  was  doubtless  in  great  part  the  re- 
flection of  progressive  states  of  thought  among  the  people  at 
large,  due  not  to  accident  but  to  natural  development.  Kauf- 
mann  is  ready  to  attribute  all  these  better  views  of  a  future  life 
to  the  Mysteries.  But  one  must  not  be  dogmatic.  In  any 
case  these  views  had  a  tendency  to  overstep  the  formal  and 
narrow  limits  of  the  Eleusinian  teachings.     We  have  seen  that 


2 1 ]  VIE WS  RE GA RD ING  DEATH  3 1 

Aristophanes  and  Pindar  held  that  future  blessedness  was 
only  for  the  initiated ;  the  teaching  of  Musaeus  and  Orpheus, 
as  currently  received  among  the  people,  was  to  the  same 
effect;^  and  Sophocles,'  according  to  Kaufmann,  taught  the 
same.  But  the  Pseudo-Plato,  whenever  he  lived,  gave  them 
only  the  front  rank.  And  Euripides,  who  is  frequently  in  ad- 
vance of  his  generation,  would  lead  us  to  infer  that  goodness 
without  initiation  is  sufficient  of  itself^ 

The  tomb-inscriptions  of  the  IVth  century  often  follow  the 
Euripidean  tradition,  as  this  '>  from  Athens,  394  or  373  B.  C: 

oi/Siva  TTT^fidvag  inix^oviuv  av&puT^uv 

fif  'Ai6a  KaTE^a  naaiv  fiaKopiarog  l6^G-&ai. 

There  are  others,  however,  more  Eleusinian  in  tone,  as  the 
following,'  both  from  Athens,  probably  early  in  the  IVth  cen- 
tury: 

barla  fiiv  koI  adpKcig  £jez  ji^^wv  nal(?a  rbv  i}Svv, 
Tpvx'')  ^  evoE^CiJV  olxETai  etf  -da^.a^ov 

and, 

cu^a  fiev  kv  k6?.7toi^  Karexsi  tSSe  yala  H/'.drwvof , 
ilwxv  (5'  ic!0'&€U)v  rd^Lv  ejet  fiaKdpcjv. 

Speusippus  considers*  that  rd^tv fiaKdp(^  is  the  same  as  x<^poc  evae^uv, 
in  which,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Pseudo-Plato  gives  the  Mystae 
the  first  rank,  and  the  ■&dlafiov  evae[iei^  is  doubtless  another  ex- 
pression for  the  same  idea.^ 

Thus  then  did  death,  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  natural 
impulse,  of  philosophy  and  of  religion,  appear  to  the  baffled 
and  sensitive  minds  of  the  Athenians ;  the  most  uncertain  of 
all  certainties,  for  they  fully  realized  that  in  the  midst  of  life 
we  are  in  death,  and  audf/mi  ^  is  a  frequent  term  for  "  to  live ;" 

1  Plato:  Rep.,  ii,  364-5.  ^Soph.  fr.,  753;  Kaufmann,  p.  4. 

'  Ale,  744-6  :  fr.,  848  ;  quoted  below,  chap.  II,  ad  Jin. 

*  Kaibel,  26,  11.  8-9. 

^ Kaibel,  90;   Preger,  12.  ^Kaufmann,  p.  21. 

^  Kaufmann,  p.  2,  quoted  below,  chap.  II,  ad  fin, 

•  E.  El.,  60 ;  Hec,  73  ;   Hel.,  297,  et  al.  oft. 


^2  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [32 

coming  no  one  knew  whence,  from  god  or  fate  or  demon;  strik- 
ing no  one  knew  whom,  for  "  somehow  the  treacherous  and 
the  wily  the  gods  deHght  in  rescuing  from  Hades,  but  the  just 
and  the  upright  they  are  ever  dismissing;"^  leading  no  one 
knew  whither,  and  in  this  lay  its  real  horror;  for  though  fancy 
might  indulge  in  pleasing  dreams,  though  philosophy  might 
argue  for  a  life  no  worse  than  this,  though  religion  might 
promise  blessedness  and  contentment,  the  only  certain  verdict 
was  that  "  after  death  there  await  men  such  things  as  they 
think  not  nor  expect."  ^ 

1  Phil.,  448-50. 

"^  Heraclitus,fr.,  122. 


CHAPTER  II 

CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD 

The  Greeks  do  not  seem  to  have  formed  a  very  definite 
conception  of  the  difference  between  the  state  of  life  and  that 
of  death.  Buchholz  has  worked  Homer's  notions  out  into  an 
elaborate  scheme.  He  says : '  "  The  psychological  principle — 
spirit,  understanding,  will,  feeling — dwells  in  ■&vfidg  and  ^pevef, 
the  breathable  life-principle  in  the  ijwxr/,  but  the  body-principle  in 
in  the  /nhog.  When  life  ceases,  the  ipvxv  f^ies  to  the  shades  in 
Hades;  but  the  activity  of  the  (ppheg,  the  -^vfibg  and  the  ^fiof, 
ceases  and  dies  utterly,  and  thereby  the  man  loses  his  con- 
scious personality,  his  proper  €£"0,  his  somato-psychic  exist- 
ence ;  for  all  on  which  the  animal  and  spiritual  [geistige)  life 
depended,  the  fvxv  leaves  here  on  earth,  and  takes  nothing- 
with  it  to  Hades,  where,  without  will,  thought  and  sensation, 
instinct  and  feeling,  devoid  of  all  affection,  it  continues  a  most 
miserable  existence."  The  iwxv,  then,  by  no  means  corre- 
sponds to  the  modern  idea  of  a  soul,  being  far  less  comprehen- 
sive. The  -iiwxai  are  mere  Mu/.a,  oKial  and  anewjva  Kdpnva,  beingless 
visions,^  unfeeling  and  forgetful,  without  articulate  speech,  but 
like  gibbering  bats  3  or  birds,  and  revived  for  a  time  only  by 
the  drinking  of  blood.  The  picture  Buchholz  draws  is  ex- 
ceedingly gloomy,  perhaps  needlessly  so.  For,  while  his  con- 
clusions can  be  supported  by  reference  to  particular  passages. 
Homer  takes  no  trouble  to  be  consistent;  and  certainly  the 
spirits  interviewed  by  Odysseus  retained  their  memory   and 

'^Buchholz:  Die  HovieriscJien  Realien,\\\.  b,  36;  see  III.  b,  4-69  ;  II.  b» 
157-60. 
'^Od ,  II:  476  ;  et  at.  ^  Od.,  24  :  5-9  ;  et  al. 

33]  ZZ 


34  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [34 

interest  in  things  terrestrial :  the  gloomy  Achilles '  at  last  re- 
joices in  the  renown  of  his  son;  Elpenor  and  Teiresias^  both 
recognize  Odysseus  without  drinking  of  the  blood ;  and  the 
wrathful  Aias,3  mindful  of  his  wrongs  at  Odysseus'  hands, 
seeing  him  from  afar,  will  not  even  approach  the  libations  in 
the  trench. 

The  soul,  shorn  of  so  much  of  its  former  glory,  would  nat- 
urally be  conceived  of  as  diminutive  in  size;  and  so  it  appears 
on  the  vases,*  though  it  is  never  thus  represented  in  either 
Homer  or  the  Tragedians.  That  it  could  issue  from  a  small 
opening  is  no  proof  in  point,  for  spirits,  in  story  at  least,  are 
very  compressible,  and  the  full-sized  fUulkm  of  Iphthime  passed 
easily  through  the  keyhole.^  Besides,  the  ghosts  seen  by 
Odysseus  were  probably  of  human  proportions,  for  there  is  no 
statement  to  the  contrary.  In  a  Vlth  century  vase-painting* 
at  the  British  Museum,  the  soul  of  Patroclus  is  really  gigantic. 

The  ^^xv  in  Homer  issues  from  the  mouth,^ 

f Tret  dp  Kfv  afiEiTJierai  ipKoq  bddvruv^ 

leaving,  doubtless,  with  the  breath,  though  in  the  other  cases  ^ 
where  the  life  is  breathed  out,  it  is  dvuhg  that  is  named,  but 
probably  interchangeably  with  ■\Iwxti.  It  could  also  depart 
through  a  wound.9  The  Tragedians,  maintaining  the  belief 
that  the  soul  issues  from  the  mouth,  made  no  attempt  at  keep- 
ing ipvx7)  separate  from  the  other  terms ;  and  we  find  the  ex- 
pressions,'" 

ovTu  Tov  avTov  d^vfibv  6pv)dvec  ttecuv, 

and,  (iinv  iKTTVfuv.  In  other  cases,  fvxv  is  a  mere  concourse  of 
activities  which  ceases  with  death." 

^Od.,  II  :  540.  ^OJ.,  II  :  51-4,  90-6.  ^Ot/.,  II  :  543-6. 

*  Pottier :  Lecythes  B lanes,  pp.  75-9,  pi.  ii,  iv  ;  Gerhard :  AuserUsene  Vasen- 
bilder,  pi.  198  (2),  199  (i);  et  al.,  often,  esp.  on  white  lekythoi. 

''Od.,  4:  838-9.        ^Gerhard:  Auserl.   Vasen.,  pi.  198  (i).  V/.,  9:  409. 

8//.,  13  :  654  ;  16  :  468  ;  et  al.  ^11.,  14  :  518-9. 

iM^.,  1388,  1493.  iM/<r.,  301  ;  Or.,  1034. 


35]  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD  35 

While  the  Greeks,  to  form  some  idea  of  the  soul,  compared 
it  to  a  dream,^  to  smoke,*  to  the  shadow  which  the  sun  casts 
on  the  wall,3  and  finally  adopted  as  their  favorite  term  the 
word  image  or  picture,  euSwXov,  it  is  likely  that  these  terms, 
losing  their  first  intention  of  shadowiness  and  unreality,  came 
to  denote  something  more  distinct  and  substantial/  It  is  true, 
Euripides  thinking  of  the  unsubstantiality  of  a  spirit  asks,' 
"Wilt  thou  bury  his  (rwd?"  and  Electra  laments^  that  of  Orestes 
she  has  nothing  left  but  aiio&ov  re  koX  cKiav.  But  we  find  Sophocles 
on  the  other  hand  using  the  term  as  a  mournful  synonym  for 
life:  7 

bpa  yap  Tjfiag  ovdev  ovrag  ciTJm  tvAt/v 
el6u?i  baonrep  (ufisv  r/  Kov(pfrjv  CKiav 

and, 

av&pun6q  kari  nvevixa  Kal  OKia  /xovov. 

The  belief  that  ghosts  could  make  themselves  visible  is  as 
old  as  our  knowledge  of  the  human  race.  The  existence  of 
such  manifestations  has  been  questioned  and  ridiculed,  but  has 
never  been  disproved.  On  the  contrary,  the  reappearance  of 
the  departed  spirit  is  what  men  believe  might  naturally  hap- 
pen. The  Greeks  as  a  race  evidently  thought  so  at  least,  and 
very  few,  save  a  philosopher  here  and  there,  denied  it  until  in 
late  and  decaying  times  materialism  displaced  faith  in  the  gods 
and  all  supernatural  phenomena.  Homer,  as  we  might  expect, 
mentions  them  freely.  Odysseus'  visit  to  Hades,^  and  the 
glimpse  into  the  underworld  with  the  suitors,'  may  be  mere 
poetic  digressions ;  but  we  learn  from  them  the  nature  of  a 
spirit,  that  it  was  thin  and  impalpable,  seen  and  heard,  able  to 
weep  and  speak,  but  not  to  touch  or  to  be  touched,  "like  a 

^Oe/.,  11,  20^-8.       '^Plato  :  Phaedo,'jo-^  Il.,i2,:   loo-l.         '  ffwd,  common. 
*  G.  Perrot,  in  Revue  des  Deux  Monde s,  1895.        ^Hel,  1240.         ^S.  EL,  1159. 
Mi.,  125-6;  S.fr.   \2;fr.  859.  »  Od.,  II  :  34-633. 

^Od.,  24:  6-9,  14,  98-104. 


36  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [36 

dream." '  These,  it  is  to  be  noticed,  were  the  souls,  the  i/'^'xa''» 
in  Hades,  whether  of  buried  or  of  unburied  bodies;  for  El- 
penor's  plaint  ="  does  not  accord  with  what  we  hear  of  the 
suitors.3  They  were  the  actual  spirits  of  the  dead  in  their  final 
home.  Whether  they  strayed  up  to  earth  and  appeared  be- 
fore the  wakin^^  eye,  Homer  does  not  tell  us ;  but  the  i/"'a''/  of 
Patroclus*  visits  Achilles  in  sleep  and  is  something  more  than 
a  mere  dream.  There  was  another  sort  of  ghost,  eaSw/ov,  visible 
to  the  seer  Theoclymenus,  though  not  to  the  others,^ 

EidiSkuv  (Je  TtTiiov  7rp6d-vpov,  -irAeir/  de  kul  av/vfj 
Ie/i£vuv  'Epe/36G('ie  vnb  C6(pov, 

apparitions  of  the  living  but  foretelling  their  death.  There 
was  still  another  sort,  one  fashioned  by  the  gods  to  deceive 
people  whether  for  good  or  ill,  but  having  no  real  connection 
with  the  person  represented  and  no  direct  effect  on  his  life;  as 
when  Apollo,  after  carrying  off  Aeneas,  made  art  ddu'/ov  of  him 
for  the  Greeks  and  Trojans  to  fight  over;^  or  when  Athene 
made  an  eWmov  like  Iphthime,  which,  having  cheered  Penelope 
in  a  dream, "  slipped  away  by  the  bolt  of  the  door  and  passed 
into  the  breath  of  the  wind,"  ^  an  objective  entity  and  not  a 
mere  subjective  impression. 

In  historical  times  this  belief  in  ghosts  and  apparitions  re- 
mained substantially  the  same,  but  became  more  definite  and 
specific.  The  gods  were  still  held  to  create  dcW/.a,  entities 
wholly  independent  of  the  persons  they  resembled.  Thus 
Clytaemnestra  at  one  time  denies  that  she  killed  Agamemnon, 
but  says,^  "The  ancient  ruthless  evil  genius  of  Atreus  .  .  . 
likened  to  the  wife  of  this  dead  man  hath  visited  him  with 
vengeance."     And   not   Helen,  some   supposed,  but  only   an 

1  Oc/.,  II  :   204-23,  391-4.  ''■Ibid.,  II  :   5I-4.  ^  Ibid.,  24:     99-104. 

*  //.,  23  :  65-107  •  frequent  on  the  vases  at  the  dragging  of  Hector. 

*  Od.,  20  :  355-6. 
6  //.,  5  :  449-53. 

'  Cd.,^:  795-841,  Lajtg,  Leaf  and  Myers"  transl.  ^  Ag.,  1500-3. 


27]  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD  37 

image  like  her,  was  carried  to  Troy.  This  e1^u7mv  of  Helen  is 
interesting,  not  only  for  the  large  part  it  played  in  Greek  litera- 
ture, but  because  we  have  a  more  complete  account  of  it  than  of 
any  other.  Helen  herself  speaking  of  it  calls  it  eUiS).ov  eunvow  sent 
ovpavov  a~o  and  made  by  Hera'  from  al^/'/p,''  though  Electra  says 
it  was  sent  by  Zeus.3  Menelaus  calls  it  vecptAyg  a^aliia  7.vyi)6v,  a 
baneful  image  of  cloud,*  the  Messenger  5  refers  to  it  contemptu- 
ously  as   ve<pk7.rjv;    and   the  Chorus  ^  call    it   ve^tlav,  e16u1ov  Ipbv  "Kpag. 

Twice  Helen  refers  7  to  it  as  SoKvaii,  a  fancy.  Its  departure^ 
"was  into  ai-&7)f)  and  ohpavoq.  Its  unreality  and  unsubstantiality, 
then,  are  strongly  insisted  on.  On  the  other  hand  it  was 
represented  as  seeming  very  real.  Menelaus  dragged  it  by 
the  hair  from  Troy ,9  saved  it  from  the  wreck,  and  hid  it  in  a 
cave;  and  the  Messenger's  astonishment '°  at  finding  that  it 
was  only  a  cloud  is  very  plain. 

Of  the  apparitions  of  those  about  to  die,  the  Tragedians,  as 
far  as  we  know,  say  nothing;  but  Megara  in  her  extremity 
calls  upon  the  living  .Herakles  to  help  her," 

i7i-&e  Koi  OKia.  (pdvr/^i  fj.01, 
a'AKap  yap  eAi?wv  iKavov  av  yevoco  av. 

And  Pausanias"  tells  us  that  when  Teurosthenes  was  victor  at 
Olympia,  an  apparition,  (^da^a,  closely  resembling  him,  appeared 
at  his  home  and  announced  his  victory. 

Phantoms  which  appear  in  dreams  are  less  open  to  criticism 
as  to  the  truthfulness  of  the  witness;  but  the  Greeks  through- 
out their  history  believed  them  to  be  at  least  possibly  objective. 
Admetus  hopes  '3  to  see  Alcestis  in  dreams,  but  this  may  have 
been  only  the  common  language  of  affection.  Moreover  their 
appearance   generally   foretold    misfortune,    as   when    Darius 

I  Hel.,  33-4.  ■'  Ibid.,  582-6.  -^  E.  El.,  1282-3. 

*  Hel.,  705,  1219.  ^  Ibid.,  707,  750.  ^  Ibid.,  1 135-6. 

'' Ibid.,  iig,  T,6.  ^  Jbid.,  i2ig,  So^-j.  ^  Ibid.,  116,412-^,424-^. 

"  Ibid.,  707  ff.  "  H.  M.,  494-5.  ^*  Pans.,  6  :  9  :  3. 
iM/r.,  354-6. 


38  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [^g 

appears    to   Atossa/  and    Eteocles  sees  the   phantoms,*  6i/-<c 

h'v-ri(jv  (pavTciafiaruv,   dividing  the   property.       The  (fda/iara,  cpavTanfm-a 

of  Achilles  and  of  her  son  appear  to  Hekabe '  as  a  premonition 
of  evil.  Clytaemnestra  calls  herself  omp,  and  it  is  possible  she 
should  be  thought  of  as  seen  by  the  sleeping  Furies  alone,  and 
as  soon  as  they  awake  she  vanishes.*  Dream-phantoms  are 
the  only  sort  which  Sophocles  mentions,  and  that  but  once, 
when  he  admits  that  Clytaemnestra 5  twice  saw  Agamemnon 
in  a  dream. 

The  general  belief  in  ghosts,  however,  was  so  strong  that 
both  Aeschylus  and  Euripides  bring  them  on  the  stage.  The 
calling  up  of  Darius  by  means  of  libations,  chanting  and  prayers 
to  the  x^6i'iot,  is  very  dramatic^  and  unquestionably  is  meant 
to  represent  an  actual  materialization  of  his  spirit. ^  But  Cly- 
taemnestra,^ as  we  have  just  said,  is  possibly  merely  a  dream, 
visible  to  the  audience  for  stage  effect,  and  very  probably  is  no 
more  to  be  imagined  as  on  the  same  plane  of  physical  actuality 
with  the  other  characters  in  the  play  than  are  the  gods  who 
stand  in  the  midst  of  pedimental  battles.  lo  speaks^"  of  see- 
ing the  ghost  of  Argus ;  but  though  she  refers  to  the  shrill 
sound  of  the  reed,  it  is  not  likely  that  the  phantom  was  per- 
ceptible to  any  but  herself,  or  that  it  was  represented  on  the 
stage.  Euripides  is  more  bold  and  realistic  in  his  treatment 
of  stage  ghosts.  The  ekW/.ov  of  Polydorus'°  speaks  a  long  pro- 
logue and  very  considerately  moves  away  lest  his  mother  be 
frightened  at  sight  of  him.  The  ghost  of  Achilles  is  freely 
talked  of  as  appearing  to  the  whole  army;"  and  Admetus 
fears  lest   the   restored   Alcestis  be  some  phantom  from  the 

^Fer.,  197-8,  518-9.  ^  Sep.,  710-1.  ^  Hec,  69-77,  92-5,  702-9. 

*' Eufn.,  116.  ^  S.  j£'/.,  417-23. 

6  Jer.,  619-22,  633-So,  686-8,  697,  etc.  ^  IbiJ.,  681-842. 

8  Ettm.,  04-139.  *  Fro.,  567-71,  574-5. 

^'^Hec,  1-58.  ^'^  Ibid.,  37-41,  108-15. 


2q]  condition  and  po  wers  of  the  dead  39 

dead/  ^dc\ia  veprtpcn'.  In  like  manner  Teucer  thinks  Helen  is 
■yvvacKog  cIku  cpoiwv,  and  Menelaus  that  she  is  a  phantom  from 
Hecate.^ 

Murderers  cut  off  the  extremities  of  their  victims  and  wiped 
the  blood  on  their  heads  to  prevent  their  ghosts  from  annoying 
them; 3  though  Sophocles  merely  says  it  wsls  for  purification/ 
There  would  seem  to  have  been  reason  for  this  practice,  since 
we  hear  of  ghosts  evoked  to  declare  their  murderers/  But 
Plato,  who  tries  to  turn  everything  to  moral  account,  says 
ghosts  are  the  souls  of  those  who  have  died  not  pure,^  ai  p) 
Ka^apcjg  cnrolv&daaL ;  and  as  murderers  for  this  reason  are  especi- 
ally restless,  he  would  have  their  bodies  buried  at  crossroads, 
where  there  was  always  an  image  of  Hecate''  to  keep  ghosts 
from  walking.* 

Homer  mentions  the  ghosts  of  animals,^  Orion  hunting  "  the 
very  beasts  that  himself  had  slain  in  the  lonely  hills;"  but  the 
Tragedians  say  nothing  on  this  subject. 

Greek  story  and  legend  were  full  of  ghosts.  Pausanias 
mentions  them  many  times  and  accounts  for  them,  if  one  must 
believe  such  things,  by  the  theory  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul.^°  He  tells  how,  up  to  his  time,  at  Marathon  they  fought 
the  great  battle  over  again  every  night,  though  curiosity- 
seekers  could  never  see  them ; "  that  a  host  of  eZJwAa  dwelt  in 
the  Temple  of  Isis  in  Phocis,  and  so  terrified  an  intruder  that 
he  died  shortly  after;"  that  the  eWwPiov  of  Actaeon  at  Orcho- 
menus  '3  troubled  the  people  until  they  performed  proper  burial 

^  Ale,  112"].  '^  i%/.,  72-3,  569-70. 

"  Cko.,  539  ;  Ap.  Rh.,  4  :  447.  See  also  Kittredge  in  Anier.  yournal of  Philol., 
Vol.  vi,  150  ff.  *  S.  EL,  445-6. 

^  Apiil.  Aletatji.,  2 :  35 ;  Heliodor.  Etk,,  6:  14.  See  also  Max,  Tyriiis.,  14: 
2  ;   I  :  900,  etc. 

8  Plato  :  Phaedo,  81  c,  d.  '  For  Hecate,  see  chap.  III.. 

8  Plato  :  Laws,  837  b;   Farnell:    Greek  Cults,  II,  515  ;  Hel.,  569-70. 

8  Od.,  II  :   572-5.  ^^Paus.,  4  :  32  :  4.  ''  Ibid.,  i  :   32  :  4. 

«2  Ibid.,  10  :  32  :   17.         i^  /i,ij_^  9  :  38  :  5. 


^O  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [40 

rites  for  him;  that  the  ^wiiuv  of  one  of  Odysseus'  sailors  mur- 
dered at  Rhegium  annually  insisted  on  having  a  girl  sacrified 
to  him, and  ended  his  inhuman  demands  only  after  a  wrestling 
match  with  a  famous  athlete  in  468  B.  C' — but  the  hand  of 
the  priest  is  too  evident  in  this  last  phenomenon.  He  tells 
also'  of  the  occasional  appearances  of  such  heroes  as  Neopto- 
lemus,  Echetlaeus,  and  others,  at  battles  and  elsewhere.  He 
holds  too  that  phantoms  in  dreams  are  real  manifestations,3  as 
of  Pindar,  who  appeared  soon  after  his  death  to  an  old  woman 
and  dictated  to  her  his  last  poem. 

From  ghosts  to  a  resurrection  is  a  natural  and  easy  step  in 
belief  To  rise  again  was  however  a  difficult  matter  in  prac- 
tice, to  be  accomplished  only  by  the  direct  intervention  of  the 
gods : 4 

El  ye  jiTj  Ttq  -deuv  avaarfiaeie  viv 

though  their  power  to  intervene  was  generally  acknowledged.s 
Asklepios  especially  was  the  god  who  raised  the  dead ;  but 
for  this  Zeus  struck  him  with  his  thunderbolt,  thus  indicating 
that  it  was  not  a  right  thing  for  him  to  do.^  Henceforth  only 
by  trickery,  as  when  Apollo  cheated  the  Moirai  ^  or  Sisyphus 
the  gods  of  the  underworld;^  or  by  superhuman  force,  as 
when  Herakles  wrestled  with  Thanatos  for  Alcestis;9  or  by 
some  great  spell,  such  as  the  music  with  M'hich  Orpheus  won 
back  Eurydice,'°  could  the  dead  be  brought  to  life  again.  To 
the  Greeks  of  historic  times  the  visible  destruction  of  the 
body  by  fire  or  decay  was  a  stumbling-block  to  belief  in  a  res- 
urrection; for  though  in  Homeric  days  a  goddess  might  pre- 

1  Pans.,  6  :  6  :  7-10. 

*  Ibid.,,  1:4:4;   I  :  32  :  5  ;  4  :  42 :  4 ;  (f^  al.;  Plut.  TTies.,  35  ;    Themist.,  15. 
'  Pans.,  9  :  23  :  4 ;  4  :  13 ;  4  :  26  :  7,  8  ;  ^^  a/.  ^  H.  M.,  719;  et  al. 

5  Ale,  218-9. 

*  Ibid.,  122-9,  3-4  ;  Ag.,  1022-4.     A  non-Homeric  idea,  Iwanowitsch,  p.  39^ 
See  Dyer  :   Gods  in  Greece,  ch.  on  ^sculapius. 

''Ale,  1 1-2,  32-4.  8  p/iii_^  624-5.         ^  Ale,  1 140-2.  ^°  Ibid.,  357-9. 


41  ]  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD  ^j 

serve  intact  the  body  of  some  favorite,  as  of  Patroclus/  in 
succeeding  centuries  the  art  of  embalming  had  been  lost,  ap- 
parently even  by  the  gods.  But  that  did  not  prevent  disem- 
bodied souls  from  finding  some  other  corporeal  domicile, 
though  it  were  less  commodious  or  less  adapted  to  their 
needs;  and  if  they  could  content  themselves  with  the  inferior 
convenience  of  an  animal  body,  why  not  also  with  that  of  a 
plant  or  mineral?  Thus  Cadmus  and  Harmonia  are  trans- 
formed to  serpents,'  the  wife  of  Tereus  to  a  nightingale,^ 
Niobe  to  a  stone,*  Lycurgus  to  a  rocky  spring.^  and  many 
others  to  like  objects.  Pausanias  gives  many  similar  in- 
stances;^ but  Plato,7  when  he  says  men  turn  to  the  animals 
they  most  resemble,  is  speaking  only  figuratively.  For  such 
a  transformation  it  was  not  necessary  that  actual  death  should 
occur,  though  it  implied  in  a  way  a  sort  of  death.  There  were 
stories,  moreover,  of  mortals  who  were  transformed  to  gods,^ 
as  Herakles,  or  taken  up  to  heaven  or  to  other  blessed 
regions.  The  transmigration  of  souls  into  other  human 
bodies  is  a  kindred  theory  and  must  have  developed  rather 
early.  Pythagoras  is  the  first  Greek  philosopher  that  we 
know  of  who  taught  this  doctrine;  but  since  it  is  the  natural 
corollary  of  the  others,  it  is  more  likely  that  he  merely  formu- 
lated and  organized  an  old  superstition  into  a  system  and 
gave  it  the  stamp  of  his  genius,  than  that  he  invented  or 
borrowed  a  new  philosophy — that  he  was  the  last  rather 
than  the  first  of  those  who  seriously  advocated  this  idea. 
The  Tragedians  say  nothing  about  it. 

17/.,  19:  38-9. 

"^ Bac,  1330-3,  1354-60.  '  A.  Sup.,  60-7,  Ag.,  1142,  et  al.,  oft, 

*.S.  EL,  150-2  ;  Ant.,  823-9.  ^  Ant.,  955-61. 

•  Paus.,  I  :  30  :  3  ;  l  :  41  :  9  ;  10  :  48  ;  2  :  3  :  2,  et  aL,  oft.  See  Gardner  : 
New  Chapters,  pp.  314,  341,  345  ;  Hart  land :  Legend  of  Perseus,  I,  182-228. 
Common. 

'  Plato  :  Phaedo,  ch.  xxxi. 

*  Phil.,  726-8  ;  Her.,  854-6  ;  And.,  1254-8 ;   Rhe.,  963,  970-3  ;  et  al. 


42  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [42 

In  this  connection  arises  the  interesting  question  as  to 
whether  a  man  possessed  more  than  one  soul.  The  Trage- 
dians say  nothing  definite  on  this  point ;  but  Homer,  though 
in  the  IHad'  he  says  plainly,  iv  Se  la  ^wxv,  "  there  is  but  one  life 
within,"  tells  us  in  the  Odyssey ""  that  Herakles'  t'Hulov  was  in 
Erebus  and  himself  at  the  feast  of  the  gods.  The  Tragedians, 
however,  hint  at  something  of  this  sort,  possibly  in  the  doc- 
trine 3  of  the  vtfieat^,  but  especially  in  the  appearance  of  Darius 
to  Atossa  in  her  dream,  a  real  objective  appearance,  which  his 
ghost  when  it  rises  does  not  seem  to  have  known  about.'^ 
Lucian's  expression,^  <Wi'ijuovar  /xaKapirov,  referring  to  but  one  dead 
man,  may  have  a  like  import.  In  vase-paintings  sometimes  sev- 
eral little  ddu?M  flutter  about  one  corpse  or  in  one  tomb.^  The  ap- 
pearance of  Taurosthenes  in  a  distant  town,^  and  of  the  phan- 
toms of  the  suitors  in  the  hall  before  their  death ,^  and  Megara's 
call  for  the  ama  of  the  living  Herakles,^  these  and  similar  phe- 
nomena point  to  a  detachable  something  that  is  near  akin  to  a 
soul.  This  leads  to  the  belief  in  the  "external  soul,"  of  which 
we  hear  so  much  in  modern  folk-lore, '°  and  which  was  repre- 
sented in  Greek  myth  by  the  stories  of  Nisus  and  Meleager," 
that  the  external  soul  of  the  one  resided  in  the  purple  lock  of 
hair  which  his  daughter  cut  off,  and  of  the  other  in  the  fire- 
brand which  his  mother  caused  to  be  burned. 

The  majority  of  the  dead,  however,  never  played  the  part 
of  ghosts  nor  wandered  into  other  bodies.  What,  then,  be- 
came of  them  ?  There  was  always  a  vague  feeling,  the  result 
of  a  materializing  philosophy,  that  the  dead,  even  if  still  sus- 
taining a  sort  of  life  of  their  own  so  as  actually  to  feel  the  weight 

1  //.,  21  :  569,  Z.  L.  M.  2  Od.,  II  ;  601-3.  3  s.  EL,  1466-7. 

*  Per.,  187-8,  681-93.  °  Lttcian  :  De  Luctu,  24, 

*  See  Roschcr,  II,  illustrations  on  pp.  1150,  1147.  '  Pans.,  6:9:3. 

8  Od.,  20  :   355-6.         ^  H.  M.,  494-5.  '"  Erazer  :  Golden  Bough,  II,  339. 

^1  Cho.,  613-22,  604-12  ;    Pans.,  I  :  19  :  4  ;    10:  31  :  3,  4. 


43"!  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD  43 

of  mould  upon  them,^  were  unconscious  and  forgetful  of  earth,^ 
(jTToc^oi' re  ^Tu  cTwaz^  avw^EA/y ;  and  Iwanowitsch  3  remarks  that  they 
rarely  answered  prayers  addressed  to  them.  But  affection  and 
fear,  though  operating  from  different  causes,  both  militated 
strongly  against  these  notions.  Homer '^  is  not  clear  on  this 
point  and  his  statements  are  often  contradictory;  but  the 
Tragedians  have  much  to  say,  though  their  expressions  are 
not  always  quite  consistent.  The  ghost  of  Darius  s  remembers 
perfectly  all  that  happened  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  but, 
like  some  of  Odysseus'  interlocutors,  nothing  further ;  and  his 
famous  prophetic  power  seems  to  have  been  simply  his  recol- 
lection of  the  oracles  he  had  heard  before  dying,  the  im- 
port of  which  he  now  by  the  light  of  current  events  begins  to 
understand.  The  ghost  of  Clytaemnestra,^  however,  is  keenly 
alive  to  all  that  is  going  on,  her  perceptive  faculties  having 
become  only  sharper  through  death ;  and  this  seems  to  accord 
with  the  general  belief  ?  The  dead,  if  they  were  not  conscious 
of  mundane  things,  could  at  least  be  informed  of  them  through  J 
prayer.*  Sophocles 9  tells  us  that  they  received  news  through 
^d//a,  and  Euripides'"  sometimes  speaks  of  them  as  of  dwellers 
in  a  distant  land  learning  of  things  on  earth  by  the  arrival  of 
new-comers,  and  criticising  the  actions  of  the  living."  They 
were  supposed  to  take  pleasure  in  monuments  erected  in  their 
honor,  and  by  some  considered  their  due;"  and  in  return  the 

^  Ale,  463-4;  Hel.,  852-4. 

^  S.  EL,  I159,  II70;    Cho.,  ^i-] ;    7>^.,  606-7  ;    ^-  C.,  955,  ^/ a/.,  oft. 

'  Iwanowitsch,  pp.  65-6  ;  list  of  refs.  for  prayers  unanswered. 

*  Od.,  10  :  491-5  ;   II  passim;  et  al.  *  Per.,  715-38. 

8  Eum.,  94-139. 

"^  Ant.,  542,  65-6;  S.  EL,  400;    O.  C,  1774-5;    Or.,  674-5. 

*  Cho.,  4-5,  315-23,  332-40,  et  aL,  oft.     See  Iwanowitsch,  pp.  T,g-6^,  passim. 

9  S.  EL,  1066-7.         ^^Hec,  422-3  ;  Her.,  320-1 ;  et  al.         "  Hec,  136-40. 
12  Hec,  319-20  ;  Kaibel,  7,  2,  3,  4,  10,  et  al. 


44  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [44 

pious  donors  received  benefits,  as  from  the  tombs  of  Oedipus 
at  Athens  and  of  Solon  at  Salamis.' 

But  whether  conscious  of  the  present  or  not,  they  were  gen- 
erally mindful  of  what  had  happened  on  earth  ;^  and  though 
sometimes  ready  to  lend  aid,  as  when  Orestes  and  Oedipus 
promise  to  help  the  Athenians  3 — though  Iwanowitsch  "^  com- 
pares such  aid  to  that  from  modern  relics — or  at  least  to  give 
gift  for  gift, 5  as  the  gods  did,  yet  they  were  most  often  thought 
of  as  ready  for  vengeance ;  as  when  Herakles  threatens  Hyllus, 
if  he  does  not  fulfil  his  wishes,* 

KCLi  vep'Sev  m>  apaiog  e'laael  (iapv^- 

and  they  were  most  often  invoked  to  aid  ^  in  some  vengeful 
scheme,  as  when  Electra  prays, 

Tolg  6'  kvavTMig 
\kyu  (l>avf/vai  aov,  ndrep^  ri/idopuv. 

The  dead  had  various  ways  of  expressing  their  displeasure. 
The  best  known,  of  course,  was  by  sending  the  Erinyes  to 
avenge  murder,  as  in  the  Eiimenides  and  the  Orestes.  But 
when  these  were  not  in  order,  they  had  other  means,  such  as 
secretly  shedding  the  blood  of  their  victim,®  or  causing  open 
disaster,  as  did  the  drowned  Myrtilus,?  or  by  arousing  frenzy 
and  vague  fears  at  night.^°  But  their  special  method  of  annoy- 
ance was  by  the  sending  of  bad  dreams  :  " 

Topof  yap  bp'&d'dpi^  (f)6(ioQ 

66/j.uv  bvetpd/iavTi^^  f  f  imvov  k6tov 

^  Jebb  :   Oed.  Col.,  p.  xxx.  2  s.  EL,  482-4,  et  al.,  oft. 

^  Euf/i.,  767-74,  598  ;    O.  C,  411,  1520-5;  Ber.,  1030-6. 
*'  Ivanowitsch,  p.  51.  ^  Cho.,  93-5;    et  al. 

*  Track.,  1201-2  ;   A^.,  345-7  ;    Cho.,  324-6  ;   Etim.,  768-71;   S.  EL,  495-8; 
et  al.,  oft. 

^  Cho.,  142-3  ;   E.  EL,  677-84  ;   E.  Sup.,  1 143-5  '  ^^  ^^• 

8  S.  EL,  1419-23.  9  .S".  EL,  508-15  ;  Ag.,  345-7. 

'"  Cho.,  286-8,  293-4.         11  Cho.,  32-41,  523-50  ;   S.  EL,  459-60. 


45]  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD  45 

nveuv,  aupSfVKTOv  afi(i6afia 

f/.vx6-&ev  eTiUKe  nepi  (p6/3(f), 

ywaiKeioicLV  iv  Sufiaaiv  (3apvg  tvitvuv. 

KpiTai  TE  TuvtV  oveipaTuv 

■&e6'&ev  HaKov  vireyyvoc 

jxiifKfiea^ai  Tovq  yuQ  vep-^ev  Tvepidi'iiuQ 

Toic  KTavovai  r'  ijKorelv. 

Indeed,  dreams,  whether  good  or  bad,  as  well  as  their 
fulfilment,  were  under  the  control  of  the  dead,  and  to 
the  dead  prayers  concerning  them  were  made.  ^  This 
was  part  of  their  general  gift  of  prophecy''  which  they  may 
have  acquired  from  their  close  connection  with  earth,  rijv 
TTpuTojiavTiv  Taiav ;  3  and  even  the  dying,*  like  Cassandra  and  sev- 
eral of  Homer's  heroes,  had  by  anticipation  the  same  gift. 

Except  for  these  new  powers  of  prophecy  and  vengeance, 
the  life  after  death,  as  far  as  character  and  occupation  went, 
differed  little  from  that  on  earth.  Aristophanes'  line  on  Sopho- 
cles is  well  known,5 

6  6'  evKoT^OQ  /xev  iv^dS',  evKoAog  d'  f/ce;, 

as  is  his  description  of  the  lower  world  in  the  same  play. 
Achilles,^  the  noblest  of  the  living,  is  still  the  noblest  of  the 
dead, 

'Aj^fiA/lcwf ,  Of  /xerd  ^uvtuv  ot'  tjv 
T]K.ov'  apiOTa,  vvv  c5e  tuv  te'&V7]k6tuv. 

Amphiaraus  still  reigns  virh  yaiag,  as  do  Darius  and  Agamem- 
non.7  Polyxene^  asks  to  die  free,  so  that  having  been  a 
princess  she  may  not  be  a  slave  h  veKpoiai.  Cassandra  prophe- 
sies on  the  banks  of  Cocytus  and  Acheron.^     Enmity  did  not 

1  Per.,  219-43  ;   Pans.,  4 :  26  :  8. 

2  Rohde:   Psyche,  pp.  198-9,  note. 

'  Etiin.,  2.  *  Ag.,  1317-9  ;  et  al. 

^  Arist.  Frogs,  82.  ^  Phil.,  1312-3  ;    Od.,  II  :  484-6. 

"^  S.  EL,  837-41;  Per.,  691  ;   Cho.,  356-60;   Od.,  11  :  568-71. 

^Hec,  547-52- 

*  Ag.,  I160-1  ;    Od.,  II  :  90-6;  see  also  Ag.,  1528  ;    Od.,  II  :   572-5. 


46  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [46 

cease  with  life,  though  Antigone  argues  that  it  should.' 
Even  bodily  defects  were  retained,  especially  the  wounds  which 
had  caused  death,  so  these  were  carefully  closed  and  bound 
up  ;  ^  and  for  a  like  reason  Oedipus  blinds  himself  3  that  he  may 
not  see  his  murdered  father  in  Hades  : 

kyid  jap  ovK  oid'  o/i/uaaiv  iroioLQ  (iAt-nuv 
Tvarepa  ttot'  av  TrpoaelSov  etf  "AiSov  jmo'/miv 
oi'd'  av  TOLXuLvav  iirjTEp\  olv  k/xol  dvoTv 
kpy  earl  Kpeiaaov'  ayx6vr/g  slpyaafiEva. 

Of  course  it  was  but  natural  that  friends  should  meet  again, 
and  such  scenes  may  be  depicted  on  the  tombstones,'*  but  we 
are  not  certain.  Philoctetes  s  speaks  of  going  to  search  for  his 
father  in  Hades;  Aias'  last  words ^  are  that  he  will  tell  his 
griefs  to  those  mru;  Creon  ^  bids  Antigone, 

KUTw  vi'v  f/li?oD(7',  el  (piT^yreov,  cpiML 
KEivovg- 

and  she  expresses  a  hope  of  meeting  her  parents  and  brother 
there.^  Admetus  ^  even  bids  Alcestis  prepare  a  home  for  him 
against  his  coming.  But  of  all  the  pictures  of  meeting  in  the 
lower  world,  that  one,  though  intended  to  be  taken  ironically, 
of  the  little  Iphigeneia  running  to  meet  her  father '°  is  by  far 
the  most  gracious : 

a7A'  'l<piyeveid  viv  aaTzaaiuQ 

■&vyaTvp,  wc  XPV, 

■n-arip'  avrtaaaaa  Trpbg  uiivTzopov 

irdp'&fiEVfj.'  axEUV 

nzEpl  x^^P^  (ia?M'aa  (pi'/.?/aEi. 

In  early  times,  when  retribution  followed   swift  on  wrong- 

^  Am^.,  514-24.  2  £   £i_^  1227-8  ;  et  al.,  oft. 

3  O.  T,  1371-4;   Eum.,  103. 

*  Conze:  Alt.  Grab.,  PL,  48-51,  et  a  I. 

^  Phil.,  1210-I.  6  ^2.,  865. 

''Ant.,  524-5.  *  Ibid.,  897-901. 

^  Ale,  363-4;  see  Hel.,  836-7;  E.  EL,  1 144-6  ;    Iro.,  1234. 

10^^.,  1555-9. 


47]  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD  47 

doing,  when  man  took  summary  vengeance  and  the  gods  were 
supposed  to  do  the  same,  there  was  little  need  of  relegating 
punishment  to  the  future  life.  The  mere  necessity  of  dying 
was  a  sufficient  punishment  in  itself,'  and  so  became  a  purify- 
ing agency  to  the  soul.  In  Homer,  severity  was  visited  only 
on  special  offenders  against  the  gods,  like  Tityus  and  Tantalus 
and  Sisyphus,^  and  not  on  merely  moral  delinquents;  with  the 
exception  however  of  perjurers,  whom  Zeus  and  the  other  gods 
punished  in  the  underworld: 3 

ol  VTcivep^e  Kafidvra^ 
avd-puwovq  Ttvva'&ov  otlq  k'  eniopKov  'o(i6aoy. 

As  civilization  and  especially  philosophy  advanced,  the  pun- 
ishment of  evil-doers  receded  more  and  more  into  the  future 
life,  so  that  Pausanias  ^  remarks  that  in  his  age  "  on  the 
wicked  the  wrath  of  the  gods  falls  late  and  on  those  who  have 
departed  hence."  The  Tragedians  were  beginning  to  realize 
that  not  only  many  wrong  acts  besides  perjury  escaped  detec- 
tion on  earth,  but  that  there  were  crimes  for  which  no  earthly 
punishment,  not  even  death,  was  sufficient,  such  as  the 
murder  of  a  near  relative  or  a  suppliant.  The  King  of  Argos 
says  to  the  suppliant  daughters  of  Danaus :  s 

SKSovTEq  vfiat;  tov  TvavuT^e'&pov  -dsbv 
fiapvv  ^vvoiKov  ■&7]a6fieG'&'  okdaTopa, 
Of  ov6'  hv  "AiSov  TOV  ■&av6vT'  eXev&epoh 

Electra  not  very  graciously  tells  her  mother,^ 

KttKug  6X010,  jj.r]6e  (f  £k  youv  ttots 
Tuv  vvv  diraXXd^eiav  ol  Kara  ■&Eoi. 

And  the  Erinyes  assure  Apollo  concerning  Orestes,  ? 

VTi6  re  ydv  (pvyov  ov  tvot'  EXEv&epovvTai, 
TTOTiTponaLOQ  o)v  6'  ETepov  EV  Kapa 
fiidaTop'  Eiaiv  ov  ndcETai. 

1  See  p.  18,  n.  5,  for  refs.  '  Od.,  11 :  576-625. 

'  //.,  3;  278-9;   19  :  259-60.     Iwanowitsch  denies  this  and  emends  these  lines. 

*  Paus.,  8:2:5.  *  ^-  ^^ip-i  414-6. 

*  S.  El.,  291-2  ;  Etim.,  95-6.  '  Eum.,  175-7,  340. 


4  8  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  T^g 

On  the  other  hand,  special  favorites  of  the  gods,  like 
Herakles  or  Helen,  were  taken  to  heaven  or  some  other  bliss- 
ful abode,'  though  many  of  them  were  by  no  means  exem- 
plary characters.  Moral  heroism,  the  passive  heroism  of 
suffering,  seems  to  have  had  its  first  really  great  representa- 
tive in  the  Alcestis  of  Euripides ;  and  her  reward  is  simply  to 
be  brought  back  to  earth. 

The  Greeks  of  the  Vth  century  had  not  succeeded  in  draw- 
ing a  very  distinct  line  between  the  good  and  the  bad,  especi- 
ally with  reference  to  retribution  in  the  life  to  come.  As  late 
as  Euripides  it  was  possible  to  say,* 

rovQ  Evyevetg  yap  ov  aTvyovai  6ai/iovEC, 
Tuv  6'  avapid fit/Tuv  jxa7iA6v  nai  ol  irdvoi, 

the  '"nobles"  in  contrast  to  the  "herd"  being  favored  even  in 
the  other  world.  But  the  active  and  aggressive  minds  of  the 
Greeks  were  not  content  with  being  wholly  the  playthings  of 
fate.  That  there  must  be  some  means  of  influencing  the  future 
and  unseen  world  by  the  present  and  visible,  was  felt  in  very 
early  times.  In  Homer's  day  this  influence  seemed  to  be  ex- 
erted by  the  dead  body  over  the  departed  soul,  and  proper 
burial  rites  insured  a  happy  passage  to  the  land  of  shades, 
while  their  neglect  condemned  the  soul  to  perpetual  wandering.3 
How  deeply  this  feeling — for  in  historical  times  it  could  have 
been  nothing  more — was  engrafted  in  the  very  fibre  of  the  Greek 
soul,  is  seen  in  the  insistence  on  at  least  a  formal  burial,  such 
as  that  for  which  Antigone  was  ready  to  sacrifice  her  life;''  in 
the  laws  lasting  into  late  times  concerning  the  burial  of 
strangers  washed  up  by  the  sea  or  otherwise  found  ;s  and  in 
the  much-practiced  custom  of  adoption^  by  which  a  man 
secured  proper  burial  and  the  subsequent  offerings  and  atten- 
tions at  his  tomb.     This  idea  must  have  entered  the  Hellenic 

1  See  p.  41,  n.  8,  for  refs.  ^Bel,  1678-9.  Wd.,  11  :  51-6. 

*Se/>.,  1026-41 ;  ef  aL  ^Paus.,  2  :  l  :  3;  10  :  5  :  4  ;  d-^  a/. 

^Gardner  afid  yevons,  p.  550. 


4o]  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD  4^ 

mind  while  it  was  still  in  an  early  and  formative  stage.  But 
as  the  Greeks  grew  more  spiritual  in  their  ideas,  and  recog- 
nized the  soul  as  not  the  possession  but  the  master  of  the 
body,  they  perceived  that  some  action  by  the  soul  itself  before 
death  was  necessary  to  insure  future  happiness.  This  gave 
rise  to  the  Mysteries  and  to  much  of  the  teaching  of  the  early 
philosophers,  to  say  nothing  of  the  strolling  priests  whom 
Plato'  criticises  as  "persuading  not  only  private  persons  but 
even  cities  that  forsooth  there  are  purifications  and  cleansings 
from  unrighteousness  through  sacrifices  and  childish  pleasures, 
not  only  for  the  living  but  even  for  the  dead,  which  they  call 
the  Mysteries"  of  Musaeus  and  Orpheus,  "which  will  release 
us  from  evils  there;  but  for  those  who  do  not  sacrifice  terrible 
things  are  waiting."  At  Athens  these  sacrifices  and  purifica- 
tions took  a  definite  and  regulated  form  in  the  Eleusinian 
Mysteries,  of  whose  great  influence  we  have  spoken  above,' 
and  initiation  into  them,  which  was  in  general  open  to  all,  was 
considered  the  key  to  future  blessedness.3  Plato  again  criti- 
cises this  point  of  view,  i^a-Kcp  6e  /Jyerai*  Kara  ruv  fj.efivnpievo)v,  wf  a.7i.T]-&ug 
Tov  ?iOindv  xP^vov  fxera  ruv  -deidv  Sidyovaa,  SC.  tpv^V-       oOphOClCS  SayS  '. 

<I)f  rplg  b?i(iioi 
keIvoi  (ipoTuv  ol  TavTa  Sepx'&iVTeg  teTit/ 
fzdAova'  £f  "A160V  Toi^  6e  jap  /idvoig  ekeI 
i^yv  Early  toIq  a'AXoict  kuvt'  eke'i  naKa. 

Kaufmann  claims  this  as  Sophocles'  general  belief,  but  Iwano- 
witsch  says  Sophocles  recognizes  neither  reward  nor  punish- 
ment in  the  future  world,  and  that  this,  therefore,  is  only  a 
tribute  to  the  Eleusianians.^  Kaufmann  is  probably  right,  for 
not  only  was  this  the  belief  of  Aristophanes,  Pindar,  and 
others,  with  whom  Sophocles  is  classed,  but  the  expressions 

1  Plato  :  Pep.  ii,  364-5.  ^  See  p.  28.  ^  Phaedo,  81  a. 

*  See  Hym.  Hovi.,  5  :  480-2 ;  Pind.  fr.  137  ,'3;  inscr.  quoted  by  Kaufmann,  2, 
21. 

^Soph.,fr.  753.  ^Iwanowitsch,-^'^.  51,  53. 


^O  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [50 

about  the  "  great  aether,"  quoted  above/  seem  to  indicate  two 
contrasting  places  whither  the  soul  of  man  may  go ;  and  it 
seems  probable  that  the  division  was  made  along  the  line  of 
those  fyf/3;i;i9tv-ff  rill],  that  is,  the  initiated.  Polygnotus'  painting  * 
is,  as  it  were,  bounded  by  Eleusinianism,  for  while  friends  are 
enjoying  each  other's  society  and  men  and  women  are  carry- 
ing on  their  ordinary  avocations  or  rehearsing  some  notable 
event  of  their  lives,  at  one  end  a  lady  who  had  introduced  the 
Mysteries  into  one  of  the  islands  is  receiving  honor  therefor, 
and  at  the  other  those  who  had  mocked  the  Mysteries  are 
being  punished. 

We  learn,  then,  from  the  Tragedians  of  only  three  classes  of 
sinners  who  receive  punishment  in  the  future  world ;  the  un- 
initiated, particular  offenders  against  the  gods,  and  murderers, 
with  the  last  of  whom  traitors  were  probably  classed,  for  their 
bodies  received  the  same  punishment  of  being  cast  out  un- 
buried.3 

With  Socrates  and  Euripides  came  definiteness  in  the  new 
doctrine,  that  goodness  of  itself,  purity  of  the  soul,  inde- 
pendent of  external  forms,  was  the  only  true  path  to  eternal 

happmeSS.       ovk  Igtlv  av^pl  aya^Cy  Kaaov  ohSiv  ovte  [.(Jvtl  ovte  reXevrfjaavrc, 

are  Socrates'  words;*  and  Euripides,  though  narrowing  the 
application  a  little,  almost  echoes  them :  ^ 

banc  f^s  roi'c  TEKOvrag  ev  (iiu  aij3Ei 
wT  earl  aal  C,(ov  koI  "davuv  '&Eolq  (plXog. 

It  is  true  that  Plato  in  another  place,  putting  into  the  mouth 
of  Socrates  a  very  similar  sentiment,  adds,  ija-Ep  ys  kuI  -aim 
UjETaif  but  there  is  little  of  it  known  to  us  in  the  earlier  lit- 
erature. Euripides  7  has  not  a  great  deal  to  say  on  this  sub- 
ject, but  what  he  says  is  very  plain: 

"See  p.  27.  '^Paits.  10:  28-31. 

»  O.   C,  406-7  ;    Pi.  Laivs,  838  b;   Sep.,  1013-24;  et  a  I. 
*  Fl.  Apol,  41  c  ;  <?/■  al.,  oft.  *  E.  fr.  848,  //.  1-2. 

6  //.  Phaedo,  63  c.  See  Geddes:  Phaedo  of  Plato  (1885),  note  on  this  pas- 
sage.    ''  Ale,  744-6.     See  Iwanowitsch,  p.  72,  n.,  for  Euripides  as  an  Orphic. 


5i]  CONDITION  AND  POWERS  OF  THE  DEAD  ^I 

El  rfe  -L  KaiiEi 
TT/leov  ear'  aya^otg,  tovtuv  fierexova' 
"AiSov  vvjKpTjv  irapedpevoiQ- 

and  the  omission  of  any  reference  to  the  initiated  as  a  favored 
class,  except  when  Herakles  somewhat  jocosely  assigns  his 
having  seen  the  Mysteries  as  the  reason  why  he  was  able  to 
bring  up  the  dog/  is  significant.  As  for  namptoroq,  a  IVth  cen- 
tury inscription  gives  a  man  this  epithet  because  he  had  saved 
three  tribes,  without  any  reference  to  initiation.^ 

The  question  whether  the  Greeks  ever  arrived  at  a  clear  be- 
lief in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  is  not  yet  settled.  It  is 
true  that  even  on  Dipylon  tombstones  from  Athens  and 
Eleusis  we  find  a  sort  of  immortality  hinted  at.  Kaufmann3 
quotes  a  Vth  century  inscription  which  he  calls  "  the  oldest 
Greek  epitaph  in  which  the  soul  is  clearly  pronounced  im- 
mortal :  " 

KOLvbv  ^EpaE(p6v7j(;  Trdciv  sx^^i  '&dXa/j,ov, 
aujua  fiEv  kv&d6E  cov,  AiovvaiE,  yala  KaliniTEi 
ipvxyv  6e  cf&dvarov  koivoq  e^ei.  Tci/ula^. 

The  Tragedians  do  not  commit  themselves  definitely.  The 
best  that  Aeschylus  ■*  can  say  is  : 

TEKVov,  (pp6v7//j.a  Toll  ^avovTog  ov  dcifid- 
i^Ei  Tivpbg  fiakspd  yvd'dog, 
(paivei  6'  varepov  bpydg- 

and  Euripides'  speculation ^  is  only  more  vague: 

6  voix 
ruv  KardavdvTuv  i^y  fiEV  ov.  yvuu'/v  6'  exEi 
d'&dvaTov  Etg  d'&dvarov  al^ep'  e/nrEouv 

and  elsewhere  ^  he  says  : 

6  voi'g  yap  tjfiuv  ectiv  ev  EKdaru  i?eof 

while  Sophocles  7  rather  questions  the  whole  matter: 

^H.M.,eiT,.  ■^  A'aibel,  26. 

'  Kuni.,  2784,  //.  5-7.     See  Kaitjmann,  p.  2,  for  further  references. 

*  C/5<?.,  323-6.  ^Hel.,\Q\\-b.         ^E.fr.iooT.  ''C.  C.  998-9. 


52  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [52 

o(f  f}'w  ov6e  tt/v  TTarpoq 
ipvxyv  av  olfiai  ^fjaav  avreiTre'tv  l;i;etv 

though  we  have  seen  that  he  speaks  of  the  reward  of  the  ini- 
tiated as  ;fjv.  Pericles  gives  a  hint  in  the  same  direction  in  his 
famous  funeral  oration.^  Plato,  as  we  may  infer  from  pass- 
ages quoted  above  and  many  others,  apparently  believes  in 
immortality,  but  the  arguments  he  brings  forward  to  prove  it 
are  by  no  means  convincing,  and  Cicero  in  the  Sonmiiim 
Scipionis,  takes  him  to  mean  only  a  limited  and  by  no  means 
endless  duration.  Indeed,  immortality  is  quite  beyond  the 
grasp  of  finite  minds,  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul  is  by  no 
means  susceptible  of  proof;  but  a  belief  in  the  soul's  immor- 
tality is  not  thereby  precluded. 

^F/ut.  Peric,  8. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE    OTHER    WORLD    AND    THOSE   WHO    DWELT    THERE 

Since  it  was  felt  that  the  dead  were  in  existence  some- 
where, we  are  prepared  to  find  much  speculation  as  to  their 
abode  and  companions. 

But  first  a  word  should  be  said  touching  the  journey  of  the 
soul.  The  journey  of  the  body  ^  to  its  last  resting-place  may 
have  affected  the  phraseology ;  but  death  as  a  journey  is  too 
trite  and  too  natural  a  figure  to  need  justification  or  illustra- 
tion.' It  has  been  claimed  3  that  the  position  of  the  body  dur- 
ing the  prothesis,  with  its  feet  toward  the  door,  was  typical  of 
this  journey.  When  we  remember  that  what  testimony  we 
have  from  the  monuments  '*  goes  to  show  that  in  the  proces- 
sion the  body  was  carried  head  foremost,  this  position  at  the 
prothesis  would  be  full  of  significance,  did  we  not  reflect  that, 
whatever  fancies  may  have  grown  up  later,  both  these  posi- 
tions were  the  most  natural  and  convenient  for  the  purpose  in 
hand.  In  Homer  the  journey  is  but  a  crude  instinct.  The 
souls,  gibbering  like  bats,  somehow  flutter  away  to  Erebus.s 
Later,  the  likeness  to  birds  becomes  more  apparent,  assisted 
perhaps  by  such  myths  as  that  of  Philomela,  or  the  tradition 
of  the  Memnonides.^  On  a  Sicilian  vase  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum,7  above  the  head  of  Procris,  who  is  just  slain  by  Cephalus, 

1  Ale,  609-10  ;  et  al.  ^  Ale,  262-3  ;  et  al.  oft. 

^  Blilmner:  Leben  u.  Sittett,  II,  76. 

*•  Baumeister,  III,  p.  1943;  I,  p.  727  ;  Gardner  and  yevons,  p.  363. 

*  Od.,  24 :  I-14.  ®  Pans.,  10  :  31  :  6. 

"^  Milling  en  :  Ined.  Mon.,  Ser.  I,  PL,  14. 

53]  S3 


54  DEA  TH  AND  B  URIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA  GED  Y  [54 

flies  a  bird  with  a  human  head.  Some  such  idea  may  have 
been  in  the  mind  of  Theseus  when  he  says  ^  of  his  unhappy 
wife : 

hpvtq  yap  wf  Tig  tK  jEpov  a<pavTog  el, 
7rr/d?//j^  ff  "A160V  icpanrpov  opiiijaaaa  jioi. 

On  the  vases,^  especially  the  Attic  white  lekythoi,  above  the 
dead  person  or  his  stele  frequently  flies  one  or  more  little 
black-winged  creatures,  generally  held  to  be  the  soul  of  the 
departed  ;  while  on  a  vase  from  Pikrodaphni,  inside  the  mound 
of  a  tomb  four  of  these  tiny  beings  are  fluttering  about.3  On 
a  black-figured  amphora '^  of  the  Vlth  century  in  the  British 
Museum,  flying  over  a  ship  is  the  ghost  of  Patroclus  furnished 
with  large  wings  like  those  of  an  eagle.  A  bird  is  also  some- 
times offered  ^  at  a  tomb  or  flies  ^  over  it. 

This  little  soul,  curiously  enough,  becomes  confused  with 
the  child  Eros,^  and  may  be  the  prototype  of  the  Nike-Eros^ 
which  appears  on  late  hero-chapel  and  Persephone  vases. 
The  interesting  question  arises  whether  the  dual  meaning  of 
the  word  •^iwxv,  soul  and  butterfly,  had  anything  to  do  with  the 
attribution  of  wings  to  the  soul ;  but  i/ivj//  meaning  butterfly  is 
not  found  in  early  writers,  and  may  be  a  late  development ;  and 
Passow  tells  us  that  its  accent  was  possibly  V'J'?,^  while  Furt- 

^  Uip.,  828-9;  Or.,  674-6;  E.  Sup.,  1 142;  O.  T.,  175-8;  Ion,  796. 

"^Pettier  :  L.  B.,  PI.  4;  Rayet  et  ColHgnon,  pp.  233,  235  (figs.  86,  87);  Rob. 
inson  :  Cat.  Gk.   Vases,  p.  165  ;  RoscJier :  Lexikon,  II,  1150;  et  al. 

^  Athen.  Mitth.,  16,  p.  379. 

*  Gerhard :  Auserl.   Vasen.,  PL  198  (i). 

6  Pettier  :  L.  B.,  PI.  4,  p.  146  (no.  49)  ;  Cat.  Vases  in  Br.  Mus.,  Ill,  D  69; 
IV,  F  336. 

'^Hamilton  Collection!,  Ill,  30  ;  Cat.   Vases  in  Br.  Mus.,  IV,  F  333. 

T  Pottier  :  L.  B.,  PI.  2;  Roscher,  II,  p.   1 15 1  (fig.). 

8  Genick:   Gr.  Keramik,  PI.  7  ;  Millingen  :  I.  M.,  I,  PI.  16;  et  al. 

^Passow  :  Wdrterbtich  der  gi-.  Sprache  (1857),  s.  v.  ''pvpcv,  3  and  5  ;  see  also 
Liddell  and  Scott,  s.  v.  ij-ivxv- 


55]  THE  OTHER   WORLD  55 

wangler  ^  says  that  the  earliest  known  representations  of  Psyche, 
that  is,  in  the  Second  and  First  centuries  B.  C,  show  her 
with  the  wings  of  a  bird  and  not  those  of  a  butterfly.  On  the 
other  hand,  on  a  white  lekythos  in  the  British  Museum  ^  from 
Eretria,  420  B.  C,  a  youth  is  offering  in  a  net  something  that 
closely  resembles  a  butterfly.  And  in  a  grave  of  Mycenae 
there  was  found  a  miniature  pair  of  scales  of  gold  leaf,  on  one 
of  which  was  stamped  the  figure  of  a  butterfly .3 

But  travelling  with  wings  was  not  realistic  enough  for  the 
popular  mind;*  and  just  as  the  shadows  of  early  demon- 
worship  faded,  and  the  other  world  approximated  in  its  fancied 
appearance  to  this,  so  the  modes  of  reaching  it  became  more 
like  the  earthly  methods  of  travel.  In  Homer,  notwithstand- 
ing Odysseus'  long  voyage  to  the  land  of  shades,  the  ghosts 
reach  their  final  home  by  a  swift  flight  through  the  air,  and 
Charon  and  his  boat  are  unknown.  The  grim  ferryman 
dates  probably  from  the  time  when  the  Greeks  exchanged  their 
war  vessels  for  merchant  ships,  and  is  first  mentioned  in  the 
Minyad>  The  myth  must  have  originated  among  the  lower 
classes  and  worked  its  way  up  into  literature ;  for  though 
firmly  established  in  the  Vlth  century,^  neither  Aeschylus  nor 
Sophocles  makes  any  clear  allusion  to  it. 

Aeschylus,  however,  speaks  of  irhp^iKvii'  axe^^v,  the  ferry  of 
woes,7  and  in  a  beautiful  passage  ^  describes  a  sail  boat  wafted 
by  a  chorus  of  sighs, 

hq  alev  61  'Ax^povr'  a/ueilSerac 
rav  vavcToTiov  fiekayKpoKov  ■&Eupida, 
TCLV  aarijiri  'TzdTCkuvi,  rav  avd^iov, 
TrdvdoKOV  eif  a<pavTj  te  x^P'^ov. 

^  Furtw angler  :  Col.  Sab.,^.  on  PI.  135  ;  see  Creuzer:  Synibolik,  IV,  pp.  173- 
5,  for  story  of  Psyche  w.  refs.;   Gubernatis  :   Zool.  Myth.,  II,  213-4,  but  no  refs. 

^  Numbered  D  54.  ^  Tsoiintas  attd  Manatt,  p.  105. 

*  Souls  without  wings:  Mon.  Ined.,  II,  10  B;  Gerhard:  Aiiserl.  Vaseti., 
215  ;  et  al. 

^  Roscher,  s.  v.  Charon,  arguing  from  Pans.  10  :  28:  2. 

^  Pottier :  L.  B.,  p.  44,  w.  refs. 

"^ Ag.,  1558  ;  transl.  "ford"  by   Verrall.  ^ Sep.,  856-60. 


e 6  I^EA  Til  A ND  BURIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TEA GEDY  [56 

On  the  Dipylon  monumental  vases  often  appears  a  ship/ 
which  is  variously  interpreted,  but  which,  together  with  the 
tombstone  relief  of  the  warrior  Democlides,^  may  well  have 
had  some  reference  to  this  dcupiQ  of  souls,  and  this  sacred  ves- 
sel in  its  turn  to  that  other  which  in  legendary  times  carried 
the  sorrowful  Cretan  sacrifice,  and  during  whose  annual  ab- 
sence no  condemned  soul  might  be  sent  forth  from  earth.3 

In  Euripides  we  hear  not  only  of  the  voyage,'^  but  of  Charon 
himself  with  his  boat,s  which  is  always  a  rowboat, 

-av  6'  avSdTifiov  tiikvuv 
Xdpuvog  kTCLfitveL  TT^Mxa. 

Though  the  boat  is  often  called  two-oared,^  on  the  vases  the 
ferryman  stands  holding  but  one  oar,7  or  rather  pole,  kovto^^ 
much  as  the  ferryman  of  to-day  does  on  the  shallow  English 
rivers.  In  the  A/cestis^  he  is  a  rude,  impatient  fellow,  appear- 
ing before  the  eyes  of  the  dying  lady,  with  Thanatos  instead 
of  with  his  usual  companion  Hermes,  and  calling  to  her 
to  hasten.  The  obolos  for  his  vavlov '°  is  not  mentioned  by  any 
of  the  Tragedians,  and  by  the  testimony  of  the  cemeteries  " 
was  of  very  rare  occurrence  in  early  and  classical  Attica. 

But  since  for  the  living  the  most  natural  mode  of  travel  was 
by  land,  on  foot  or  horseback,  in  this  way  too  the  dead  were 
generally  pictured  as  journeying  to  their  distant  home;  and 
Hermes," 

K^pv^  /leyiare  Tm>  avu  -s  kol  kutu, 

1  Brueckner  und  Pernice,  pp.  152-3.  ^  Conze,  PL  122. 

3  PL  Phaedo,  58  a,  b.  *  /.  A.,  667-9  ;  H.  M.,  427. 

^  H.  iJ/.,  431-2.  ''Ale,  252,  444  ;  Pans.,  10  :  28:  I. 

''Ale,  361  ;  Dumo7it  et  Chaplain  :  Cer.,  I,  PL  34  ;  Baunieister,  I,  p.  378  ; 
Gardner:  Sc.  Tombs  Hel.,  p.  31  ;  Pottier :  L.  B.,  PI.  3;  Lecuyer :  Terres 
Cuites  Ant.,  I,  PL  T2. 

^  Ale,  254  ;  et  al.  »  Ale,  252-6. 

'^'^  Lucian  :  De  Luctu,  9.  "  Brueckner  u.  Pernice,  pp.  187-8. 

"  Cko.,  165  (placed  after  123  in   Weils  text). 


57]  THE  OTHER   WORLD  57 

was  both  protector  of  travellers  and  guide  of  departing  souls.' 
His  earliest  office  in  this  latter  connection,  was  that  of  giver 
of  sleep;  to  him  in  Homeric  times  ^  the  last  libations  before 
going  to  rest  were  poured ;  on  him  Aias  calls  3  to  lull  him  to 
the  sleep  of  death, 

/ca/lw  &  (iua 
TTOfitralov  ''Epfifjv  x^^'^i-ov  ev  fie  Koi/j.i.aaL- 

and  probably  the  line,'* 

ae  Toi  kikX^gko)  tov  a'livvnvov, 

is  addressed  to  him,  if  aUwnvov^  rather  than  auv  avrzvov^  be  the 
correct  reading.  In  the  late  twenty- fourth  book  of  the 
Odyssey,  when  Sleep  and  Death  have  become  recognized  as 
brothers,  Hermes  uses  his  sleep-inducing  wand  to  lead  the 
souls  of  the  suitors  to  Hades  ^  and  becomes  their  guide  and 
helper,  amKrira.  In  the  Tragedians,  as  guide,  wo/nrdc,  Trofinaiog,  he 
comes  with  Persephone  to  lead  away  the  soul,^  or  with  Hades 
receives  it; 9  and  to  meet  Hermes  is  to  die, 

Kr/xo,vei.  6e  viv  'Ep^w^f , 

as  was  said  of  the  slain  Nisus.'°  It  is  he  who  with  the  other 
chthonian  gods  brings  or  sends  up  the  shades"  and  with  them 
or  in  their  stead  helps  to  vengeance  for  murder." 

The  question  arises  whether  the  Chthonian  Hermes  is 
identical  with  the  Olympian  Hermes,  In  Homer  he  probably 
is;  but  in  the  Tragedians,  the  evidence  seems  to  be  that  he  is 

^  See  Iwanowitsch,  pp.  99-100,  for  epithets  of  Hermes  in  the  Tragedians. 
*  Od.,  7  :  136-8;  //.,  24:  445 ;  see  Btichhoh,  III.  b,  293  and  refs. 
^Ai.,  831-2.  *  O.  C,  1578;  see  below. 

^Hermann  (1827),  Mitchell  (1844),  Wunder  (1832),  et  al. 
^ Brunck  (1822),  Reisig  (1823),  Schneider  {1826),  Blaydes  (1859),  and  most 
editors. 

^  Od.,  24 :  i-io  ;  see  G.  Perrot :  Rel.  de  la  Mort,  p.  108,  n. 
8  a  6'.,  1547-8.  9 ^/r.,  743-4. 

"  Cho.,  622.  "  Cho.,  124-6;   Per.,  629. 

12  Cho.,  1-2,  727  ;  S.  El.,  1 10-8;    Cho.,  124-7. 


5  8  DEA  TH  AND  B  URIAL  IN  A  TTIC   TRA  GED  \  [  r  g 

not.  In  the  latter,  Hermes,  son  of  Maia,  is  once  invoked,^ 
not  however  as  x'^^vior  or  Tro/iTror,  but  for  the  quite  earthly  pro- 
tection of  Orestes  in  his  wily  scheme  of  vengeance ;  while  the 
Hermes  of  the  dead  is  almost  always  designated  by  one  of 
these  epithets.''  Plato  3  makes  Socrates,  when  about  to  die, 
speak  of  going  -napa  -deovg  aT.Tiovc,  as  if  a  different  set  of  gods  existed 
in  the  other  world  ;  and  furthermore,  on  a  red-figured  stamnos* 
in  the  Vatican  we  find  both  forms  of  Hermes  together,  the 
Olympian  and  the  Chthonian,  engaged  in  conversation.  In  view 
of  this,  the  Tdg  nai  ml  Taprdpov^  may  very  well  be  the  god  whose 
function  is  to  fly  forever  between  earth  and  Hades ;  he  it  is 
who,  as  the  Argus-slayer,  could  most  readily  still  the  fierce 
Cerberus,  and  as  god  of  sleep  could  give  eternal  sleep;  and 
lastly,  since  Hermes  -ko^ttIiq  and  y  veprepa  i?e6f  are  supposed  to  be 
standing  close  at  hand  (1.  1548),  and  the  prayer  begins  to  the 
latter  (1.  1556),  not  only  would  the  final  invocation  to  Hermes 
complete  the  chiastic  arrangement  so  dear  to  the  Greek  heart, 
but  there  would,  on  the  other  hand,  be  something  very  strange, 
after  calling  upon  all  the  chief  x^^vwi,  in  omitting  Hermes,  one 
of  the  most  important,  and  one  who,  besides,  is  supposed  to 
be  present.  That  the  lines  could  not  be  addressed  to  Thanatos^ 
is  clear  from  the  fact  that  he  has  a  different  genealogy,  that  he 
is  never  called  upon  in  the  Tragedians  to  give  sleep,  that  he 
apparently  never  himself  descends  into  Hades  and  therefore 
would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  dog,  and  that  the  miracu- 
lous departure  of  Oedipus  would  make  a  prayer  to  Thanatos 
singularly  inappropriate. 

On  the  sepulchral  reliefs  ^  and  vases,^  the  dead  man  is  often 

'  S.  EI.,  1395-7.  *See  refs.  above.  ^  Rl  Phaedo,  63b. 

*  Gerhard :  Auserl.   Vasen.,  PI.  240  (I)  ;  see  (2)  also. 
5  O.  a,  1574-8. 

*The   Scholiasts  are  divided  as  to  who  is  meant;  see  AlitchelFs  Sophocles 
(1844),  note  to  11.  1574,  1578.     For  Thanatos  see  below,  p.  65  ff. 
'  Come,  PL  90,  92  (no.  380),  131  (no.  682),  et  al. 
8  Passerii,  II,  182  ;  Hamilton  Col.,  II,  15  ;  III,  33  ;  et  al. 


5q]  the  other  world  5q 

represented  in  the  hat  and  cloak  of  a  traveller,  sometimes  with 
the  addition  of  spear  and  shield,'  and  occasionally  accompanied 
by  his  little  slave  to  carry  them,  a  motif  that  clearly  points  to 
the  journey  of  death  with  its  attendant  dangers.  Beside  the 
youth  often  stands  his  horse,^  which  further  emphasizes  the 
journey  he  is  to  take,  and  is,  like  the  traveller's  hat  and  cloak, 
in  a  measure  a  symbol  of  death.  The  horse  in  its  chthonian 
relations  played  a  large  part  on  the  tombstone  reliefs  of  the 
Spartans; 3  and  a  favorite  Homeric^  epithet  for  Hades  was 
KkvTo-ukq,  Hades  of  the  goodly  steeds,  probably  with  reference 
to  the  rape  of  Persephone.  Demeter,  too,  in  her  Eleusinian, 
that  is,  her  chthonian  character,  in  Arcadia  is  closely  con- 
nected with  horses.s  Pausanias^  gives  the  legendary  account 
of  the  burial  of  two  horses  with  Marmax;  and  Euripides  ^ 
speaks  of  the  sacrifice  of  a  horse  at  the  tomb  as  an  Egyptian 
custom.  We  remember  the  horses  slain  at  the  pyre  of 
Patroclus ;  ^  and  the  bones  of  horses  have  been  found  in  early 
graves.9  All  of  which  shows  that  the  horse  was  the  animal 
that  was,  except  perhaps  the  serpent,  most  closely  connected 
with  the  dead. 

There  is  one  whole  series  of  monuments '°  of  a  little  later 
date,  in  which  horses  play  a  conspicuous  part,  the  large 
funeral  vases  of  the  IVth  century  adorned  with  the  so-called 
marriage  scenes,  in  which  the  bride  and  groom  are  typified  by 
by  Persephone  and  Hades.     It  is  more  likely  however  that 

1  Cottze,  PL  49,  88  (no.  366),  93,  147  (no.  627),  et  al. 

"^  Conze,  PL  216,  218,  219;  Hamiliott  Co/.,  II,  26;  Passerii,  II,  190;  III, 
267 ;  et  aL 

3  Fur  tw  angler,  in  A  then.  Mitth.,  1882. 

* IL,  i^:  654,  et  aL;  see  AntenrietKs  Homeric  Dictionary,  s.  v. 

*  Paus.,  8  :  25  :  4,  7-10  ;  8  :  42.  ^  Paus.,  6 :  21  :  7. 
'^^/.,  1258.                                                 8//.^  23:  17 1-2. 

•  Tsountas  and  Manatt,  p.  152,  et  aL 

^^  The  "  Apulian  Vases  "  of  the  IVth  century. 


6o  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [60 

the  carrying  away  of  the  soul  by  death  is  intended.  For 
some  reason,  perhaps  because  of  the  migration  from  one 
home  to  another  imphed  in  both,  perhaps  because  of  the  con- 
trast between  the  marriage  festivity  and  the  funeral  mournful- 
ness,  perhaps  because  of  some  forgotten  mysticism  reaching 
back  into  barbaric  times,  the  Greeks  were  fond  of  coupling 
marriage  and  death  together.  To  give  'av-\  yafiom  rdcpov  is  a 
favorite  threat  in  the  Odyssey;''  and  Diomedes'  taunt  to  the 
amorous  Paris  ^  that  he  should  have  "  more  birds  than  women 
around  him,"  and  the  sad  remark  3  concerning  the  slain,  that 
"  they  were  lying  upon  the  earth  much  dearer  to  vultures 
than  to  their  wives,"  both  point  by  irony  to  death  as  a  sort  of 
marriage.  In  Dipylon  times  we  find  the  loutrophoros — an 
amphora  with  a  long  neck  and  tall  handles  especially  conse- 
crated to  carrying  water  for  the  bridal  bath — appearing  in 
great  numbers  upon  tombs,  and  having  always  a  marriage  or 
a  funeral  scene  painted  upon  it.'*  A  funeral  scene  on  a  mar- 
riage vessel  would  have  been  of  evil  omen ;  5  consequently  vases 
thus  adorned  must  have  been  intentionally  prepared  for  the 
tomb,  and  the  presumption  is  strong  that  those  with  wedding 
scenes  were  made  for  the  same  purpose.  And  since  these  are 
the  only  two  sorts  of  scenes  hitherto  discovered,  it  naturally 
follows  that  wedding  scenes  must  have  been  considered  pecu- 
liarly appropriate  as  a  variant  for  funeral  scenes,  and  therefore 
full  of  meaning.  Loutrophoroi  on  tombs  were  common  at  all 
periods  in  Athens;^  and  in  Demosthenes'  time  had  apparently 
become  the  sign  that  the  deceased  was  unmarried. ^  That  this 
however  could  not  always  have  been  its  general  signification 
on  Athenian  tombs,  we  must  conclude  from  the  inscriptions  ^ 

1  Od.,  20 :  307  ;  et  al.  *  //.,  II:  395. 

3//.,  II  :  161-2.  *  Collignon,  in  Amer.  Jour.  Arch.,  X,  p.  407. 

5  See  above,  p.  22.  ^  Brueckner  tt.  Pernice,  pp.  145-6. 

'  Demos.,  1086,  18;  if  the  reading  and  our  understanding  of  it  be  correct. 

8C.  /.  A.,  11,3,  1731- 


5i]  THE  OTHER   WORLD  6 1 

and  reliefs  on  the  tombstones  themselves.  For  instance,  one 
stele  ^  shows  a  loutrophoros  between  two  sphinxes,  and  above, 
a  relief  representing  two  men,  both  named,  apparently  father 
and  son.  On  another,  a  stone  loutrophoros,^  we  find  in  the 
relief  three  men,  one  of  them  quite  old,  and  a  woman,  all 
named,  apparently  a  family  group.  On  still  another,^  there  is 
an  elderly  man  clasping  the  hand  of  a  young  lady;  the  differ- 
ence in  their  ages  makes  the  relationship  of  brother  and  sister 
unlikely;  the  lady  must  be  either  the  wife  or  the  daughter  of 
the  man.  On  another  stele*  we  find  what  is  certainly  a  family 
group:  a  lady  sitting  with  her  child  beside  her  clasping  the 
hand  of  her  husband  who  is  dressed  for  a  journey,  while 
behind  him  stands  his  old  father;  below  is  a  Siren  beating  her 
head,  while  at  the  bottom  is  a  loutrophoros  whose  lip  and 
handles  were  probably  painted.  All  of  these  and  many 
similar  ones  are  from  the  Vth  and  IVth  centuries  at  Athens. 
In  the  Tragedians  the  connecting  of  marriage  and  death 
becomes  very  marked.  Not  only  is  the  dwelling  of  the  dead 
frequently  referred  to  as  ^dXafioc,  "  bridal  chamber,"  or  /ivx6g, 
which  is  almost  invariably  the  women's  apartments,  but 
Antigone  calls  her  tomb,^  u  wftcpeiov,  "  bridal  chamber,"  and  says 
she  will  be  married  to  Acheron^  (here  standing  for  Hades) 
" AxepavTc  vvfi^evau  ;  Crcon  advises  ^  Haemon  to  let  r?>  tvoiS'  h  "Aidou 
TTTvde  vvfj(i)£VEiv  Tivi.  But  to  whom  did  he  refer  as  rm  ?  Certainly 
not  to  his  son,  though  we  might  infer  that  the  latter  was  the 
groom  from  the  messenger's  words  ^  a  little  later,  when  he 
finds  him  dead  beside  Antigone, 

TO.  vv/i<piKa 
teXt]  ?.axo)v  deiAacog  elv  "Aidov  66fioi^. 

1  Conze,  PL  214  (no.  1074).  ^  Co/tze,  PI.  130  (no.  728). 

3  Conze,  PI.  56  (no.  208).  *  Conze,  PI.  94  (no.  383). 

^Ant.,  891.  ^  Ant.,  816;  /.  A.,  1399. 

'^  Ant.,  654;  Hec,  612.  ^  Ant.,  1240-1  ;  Tro.,  445;  Med.,  985. 


oC. 


62  DEA  TH  AND  BURIAL  IN  A  TTIC  TRA GED  V  [62 

The  bridegroom  was  Hades  : 

"Ai(h/g  VLV  (Itf  ioiKE  vv/ii(pevaei  raxa, 

Agamemnon  says^  of  his  daughter;  and  later  ^  he  exclaims, 

Trplv  "Ai6ri  Tra'iS'  kfifjv  7rpocn?w, 

Trpoari-&7]fu  being  the  technical  term  for  giving  in  marriage  and  so 
employed  by  Polyxene,^  - a^j?;  npoari^eia'  t/ibv  difia^.  Such  expres- 
sions were  used  not  merely  of  maidens  but  of  married  women 
as  well ;  '■Aid>/v  w/icpiov  Ktn-rnih'i],  says  Pylades  ^  of  Helen ;  and  they 
were  used  even  of  men,  for  Megara,  after  naming  the  brides 
she  would  have  chosen  for  her  sons,  continues: 

/lerajSa'Aovaa  6'  jj  tvxv 
vv/j.(pac  fiEV  vfilv  K^pof  ovteSuk^  ex^tv, 
Ejiol  de  dcLKftva  Tiovrpa-  dvarrjvoQ   ippEvuv. 
ivaTTfp  6e  Tvarpbg  ectlo,  ydfiovQ  bSe, 
"Ai6r/v  vofiii^uv  Trevdepdv^  KTjSog  iriKpov.^ 

Hecate,  as  was  fitting  at  the  soul-marriage,  carried  the  torch; 

Sidova'  d)  'Emra  0dof, 

Tzap'dkvuv  h~l  MuTpoiq,  a  v6/xog  ex^^> 

says  Cassandra.^  The  myrtle,  too,  which  was  especially  sacred 
to  Aphrodite,  belonged  equally  to  death,  and  was  laid  on 
graves ;  ^  and  Aphrodite  herself  had  a  close  connection  with 
tombs  and  the  underworld.^  The  later  epigrams  in  the  An- 
thology  9  have  much  that  is  pathetic  to  say  about  the  bride  of 
Hades ;  but  we  have  an  early  Attic  inscription,'"  one  from  the 
Vlth  century,  that  is  instructive : 

2?//za  ^pacLKAeiag-  Kovprj  K€K?iyao/iai,  alet^ 
avrl  jdfiov  napa  ■&euv  tovto  Xaxoi'iy'  dvo/j.a. 

She  was  to  be  called  Kore  forever.     Now  Kore,  the  Maid,  was 
1/.  A.,  461.  ^/.  A.,  540. 

^I/ec.,  368.  *0r.,  1 109. 

^  I/.  M.,  480-4;  AnL,  1204-5.  «  Tro.,  323-4. 

'  Rohde,  p.  204,  n.  2.     See  Ale,  172. 

^  Farnell,  II,  p.  652;  refs.  on  pp.  754,  653,  699. 

9  Palatine  Anthology,  Bk.  VII,  Ep.  13,  182,  et  al.  i"  Kaibel,  6. 


63]  THE  OTHER   WORLD  63 

the  favorite  name  for  the  mystic  bride  of  Hades,  oft-received, 
snatched  away  unwilling  from  the  bright  earth  to  his  gloomy 
abode.  We  are  hardly  going  too  far  when  we  see  in  Kore  the 
type,  the  mystic  representation  of  every  departed  soul.  If  this 
be  so,  at  once  the  connection  between  marriage  and  death  be- 
comes clear  and  fitting,  and  the  loutrophoros  with  its  wedding 
scenes  finds  its  most  enduringly  appropriate  place  upon  the 
tomb.  The  magnificent  Apulian  vases  ^  mentioned  above 
probably  served  the  same  purpose  and  were  manufactured 
with  this  end  in  view.  They  are  large  and  heavy  amphorae 
with  a  wealth  of  adornment ;  and  though  they  present  a  great 
variety  of  subjects,  it  is  likely  that  all  refer  more  or  less 
directly  to  death.  Many  represent  the  "  deified  dead  "  stand- 
ing or  sitting  inside  a  small  hereon,^  sometimes  with  the  at- 
tribute or  name  of  some  hero  attached,  while,  outside,  friends 
are  bringing  offerings  of  all  sorts.  Others  represent  daily 
occupations,  a  WZ(3/?/' frequent  on  tombstone  reliefs  and  the  white 
lekythoi.  But  many  are  of  the  so-called  marriage  scenes.3 
The  general  scheme  is  the  four-horse  chariot  in  which  stands 
Hades  with  one  arm  around  Persephone,  who  turns  to  bid 
farewell  to  her  mother ;  Hermes  and,  frequently,  Dionysus  ac- 
company the  chariot,  and  Hecate  awaits  it  with  torches. 
Sometimes  Nike-Eros  flies  above.  These,  as  we  have  seen,  all 
except  possibly  the  last,  belong  to  the  chthonian  cycle,  and  it 
is  much  more  natural  and  Hellenic  to  see  in  these  a  variation 
of  the  scheme  of  the  "  deified  dead,"  than  the  apotheosis  of 
some  human  wedding,  which  could  far  better  be  typified  by 
an  Olympian  or  heroic  bridal,  than  by  that  of  the  sinister 
powers  of  decay  and  oblivion.     Of  rarer  occurrence,  but  con- 

'  The  finest  collection  of  these  is  in  Gk.  Vase  Room  4  of  Br.  Mus. 

2  Gerhard :  Ap.   Vasenb.,  PL  B ;  Rayet  et  Collignon,  PL  12  ;  et  aL,  oft. 

^  Mon.  Ined.,  VI,  PL  42  B ;  Millingen :  Ined.  Mon.,  I,  16;  Gerhard: 
AuserL  Vasenb.,  PL  240  (2),  are  typical.  See  also  Gerhard :  PL  312  (i  and  2)> 
313  (2);  et  aL 


64  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [64 

veying  the  same  fundamental  idea  is  the  carrying  away  ^  of 
the  soul  of  Herakles  by  Athene,  or  of  a  youth  by  Nike ;  ^  or 
even,  by  La'ius,  of  Chrysippus,^  whose  early  and  pathetic  death 
would  make  his  abduction  an  especially  appropriate  subject. 
And,  still  more  in  point,  on  a  late  vase  we  find  Nike  driving 
through  the  air  in  her  four-horse  chariot,  met  by  Hermes  and 
a  youth,  apparently  the  soul  of  the  dead  boy  whom  a  lady  sit- 
ting below  amid  her  friends,  is  holding  in  her  arms.'* 

But  among  the  populace,  whose  tendency  is  always  to  make 
things  concrete,  Persephone  stood  out  as  a  distinct  figure. 
In  Homeric  times,  befitting  the  age,  she  is  gloomy,  the  august, 
ayavij  Tiepae(p6v£ia,  who  sends  up  ghosts,  eiduXa^^  and  takcs  under- 
standing from  the  dead.^  Hers  is  the  grove  of  the  sad  wil- 
lows and  poplars,^  and  it  was  from  fear  of  her  that  Odysseus 
at  last  hurriedly  departed  from  Hades.^  On  the  Dipylon 
tombs,  the  house  of  the  dead  is  hers,  Su/ua  Uepastpdvm,^  koivov  Hspae- 
<f>6v7]q  nactv  f  j£«f  ^d/.a/xov/°  Likewise  in  the  Tragedians,  she  receives 
the  dead,"  who  are  hers  by  lot,"  and  she  has  the  power  to  send 
them  back  if  she  wishes.'3  To  her  Electra  prays  for  help  in 
vengeance,^'*  and  it  is  to  her  that  Macaria  is  offered.'^  But 
though  dread  and  powerful,  she  is  not — perhaps  owing  to  the 
influence  of  the  Mysteries — a  repulsive  being ;  on  the  contrary, 

Euripides  ^^  calls  her  Ka/Juiraic  avaaaa  and  rav  xpvmaTe(pavov  Kdpav;  and 

to  her  in  common  with  her  mother  the  narcissus  and  crocus  ^7 
were  sacred.'^ 

^  Man.  Ined.,  IV,  PI.  41  ;  et  al.,  oft.     By  Nike,  Passerii,  III,  276. 

2  De  la  Borde  :   Col  des  Vases  Gr.,  I,  PL  75 ;  et  al. 

3  Gerhard :  Ap.   Vasenb.,  PI.  6. 

*  Passerii,  III,  274.  ^  Od.,  Ii :   213. 

^  Od.,  10:  494-5.  '  ^'^•>  '°  •  509-^l- 

^Od.,\\:  634-5.  ^ Khmi., /Sf26. 

10  Kaibel,  35,  11.  3-4.  »  Ant.,  893-4  ;  Ale,  851-2  ;    O.  C,  1547-8. 

12  Or.,  963-4.  "  R/ie.,  962-5  ;  Ale,  357-9. 

"  CAo.,  490.  '^  Her.,  408-9,  600-1.  1 

16  Or.,  964;  Ion,  1085.  "  O.  C,  681-5. 

1^  See  Iwanowitsch,  pp.  93-5,  for  epithets  of  Persephone. 


5r]  THE  OTHER   WORLD  65 

The  name  of  Hades  is  of  frequent  occurrence  whether  as  a 
god  or  a  place.  But  first  let  us  consider  Thanatos,  a  sort  of 
double  or  offshoot  of  Hades,  or  rather  of  Hermes.  That  he 
had  no  altars  and  received  no  gifts, 

liovoq  ■&E(Jn>  yap  Qdvarog  ov  6upo)v  ipd 
oils'  av  Ti  ■&VUV  ovS'  enioirivSuv  aviog, 
ovS  £(jTi  fiu/j.dc,  ovSe  Tratavi^erai,^ 

shows  that  he  was  not  a  true  cult  god,  but  only  a  myth ;  as 
Buchholz^  says,  a  personification  "  not  of  hfelessness  but  of  the 
departure  from  life  to  death."  In  Homer  the  personification 
is  only  beginning,3  and  finds  its  highest  form  in  the  beautiful 
picture  of  Sleep  and  Death  bearing  away  Sarpedon's  body.*  In 
the  Tragedians  we  find  the  personification  complete;  and  as 
Charon  the  rude  ferryman,  boorish  and  unkempt,  is  the  death- 
myth  of  the  populace,  so  Thanatos,  the  gentle  physician,  the 
all-powerful  healer,  is  the  death-myth  of  the  cultured  classes. 
When  Asklepios,  for  meddling  with  the  latter's  prerogatives  of 
destruction,  was  slain  by  Zeus,5  it  would  seem  as  if  some  of  the 
virtue  of  the  a/ii-fiovog  inTf/pog^  had  descended  on  his  victorious  rival : 

w  QdvaTE  Jlaidv,  fiij  fi  arturjariq  ii67xiv, 
fiovog  yap  el  ai'  tuv  avT]KEa-uv  naKuv 
laTpog,  a.?iyog  6'  oi'6ev  d-TETat  VEKpov, 

says  Aeschylus  f  and  Sophocles :  ^ 

d/i/,'  £cn?'  6  T^dvaTog  Pwaroq  laTpbq  voauv 

and  Euripides,^ 

Kai  fioL  Qdva-oq  Haidv  e7.-&ol. 

Macaria'°  claims: 

TO  yap  •&avelv 
KaKuu  fiEyiarov  (pdpfiaKov  vofii^eTai. 

^A./r.  168,  Herm.  "^  Buchhoh,  III.  a.,  317-8. 

3  //.,  16  :  853.  *  //.,  16  :  454. 

*  Ale,  3-4,  122-9.  ®  ^^•■<  4  :   194- 

'  A.  fr.  250.  *  S.  fr.  636. 

^Hip.,Mn-  ^^  Her.,  S9S-^. 


66  DEATH  AAW  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [66 

Aias'  in  mental  anguish  calls  upon  him, 

w  Gai'are  Gawjre,  vvv  /z'  z'KiaKti\^ai.  pLok&v 

and  likewise  Philoctetes,^  when  tortured  with  bodily  pain, 

w  -QavaTE  •&dvare^  irdg  aei  Ka'kov fievog 
ovTu  kut'  Vfiap^  oil  dvva  uoT^elv  tcote  ; 

while  the  Chorus  3  in  Oedipus  at  Colomis  call  him  the  helper 

OI  all  alike,  b  d'  iTriKovpor  laoTiTiEaTOQ. 

The  Thanatos  of  the  Alcesiis*  is  not  at  all  the  true  Thanatos 
of  the  poets  and  the  inscriptions,  but  a  stage-villain  introduced 
to  be  worsted  by  the  hero  Herakles.  The  motif  oi  the  play 
required  some  such  character,  and  neither  Hades,  Hermes  nor 
Charon  was  appropriate.  Thanatos  alone  remained,  and  in 
one  respect  was  eminently  fitted  for  this  part;  since  his  work, 
unlike  that  of  the  others,  does  not  take  him  into  the  lower 
world,  but,  like  that  of  his  brother  Hypnus,  has  to  do  with  the 
body  rather  than  with  the  soul.s  Many  things  show  this.  On 
the  vases  we  never  find  him  pictured  in  lower  world  scenes, 
nor  in  company  with  Hades  or  Charon,  but  sometimes  with 
Hermes,^  with  whose  office  he  was  closely  associated ;  he  is 
generally  employed,  alone  ^  or  with  his  brother  Hypnus,  in 
carrying  away  the  dead^  or  in  laying  them  in  the  grave.^ 
There  is  nothing  in  either  Homer  or  the  Tragedians  that  does 
not  accord  with  this.     In  the  Alcestis  he  is  the  priest  of  the 

^Ai.,  854. 

'  Phil.,  797-8,  Why  Dindorfdots  not  use  capitals  here  as  in  the  previously 
quoted  passage  is  not  clear. 

s  O.  C,  1220-3,  *Atc.,  28-71. 

^  Buchhoh,  III.  a,  317,  classes  him  as  epichthonian. 

^Gerhard:  Anserl.  Vasen.,  PL  121 ;  Dutnont  et  Chaplain:  Cer.  Gr.  Pr., 
I,  27. 

'  Br.  Mus.  Gk.    Vase  E  463,  Kantharos  from  Nola,  400  B.  C.     (Rare.) 
^Jahrbuchdes  Inst.,  1895,  PI.  2;    Gerhard:  Anserl.    Vasen.,  PL  121  ;  ei  aL 
^Dutnont  et    Chaplain:    Cer.   Gr.   Pr.,  I,  PL  27,  29;  Robert:    Thanatos, 
PL  I,  2 ;  et  aL,  frequent. 


67]  THE  OTHER   WORLD  6/ 

dead,'  hpfi  ■&av6vro)v,  who  shears  their  locks  with  the  sword,  the 
servant  appointed^  ktelveiv  bv  hv  xpv-  Qdvaroc  -dv/LtopaiaTt/g,  Homer 3 
calls  him.  In  the  Tragedians  he  carries  the  bodies  to  rest,-* 
■ddvaTog  rrpocpEpon'  c^fiara  tekvuv^  and  lays  them  in  the  tombjS 

tTZEL  vtv  ddvarog  ev  rvcpoig  ejet" 

and  a  pre- Persian  inscription  reads,^ 

bv  ddfarog  [6aKpi>]detg  Kad^exa. 

Being  to  so  great  a  degree  a  divinity  of  the  upper  world,  it  was 
quite  within  the  bounds  of  poetic  possibility  that  Herakles 
should  meet  and  wrestle  with  him.  He  expects,  with  good  rea- 
son, to  find  him  hovering  around  the  tomb  ^  to  drink  the  blood, 
and  it  is  only  if  unsuccessful  with  him,  that  he  proposes  follow- 
ing Alcestis  to  Hades  and  rescuing  her  thence,  where  she  is  out 
of  the  hands  of  Thanatos  and  in  those  of  Persephone.^  But  as 
the  common  conception  of  Thanatos  was  too  dim  and  ill  defined 
for  stage  purposes,  Euripides  gives  him  a  rough  and  boorish 
character,  like  that  of  Charon,  but  with  wings  and  a  sword, 
and  brings  him  on  the  stage  hallooing  and  swaggering,  vaunting 
his  power  as  a  priest,  but  owning  himself  a  servant,  and  by  his 
ill-bred  lack  of  feeling  and  greedy  avarice  richly  meriting  the 
contempt  and  dislike  that  Apollo  bestows  upon  him.  Robert 
says 9  that  when  Alcestis  sees  him,  she  sees  some  one  but  does 
not  know  who  it  is.  Rather,  she  sees  two  daemons  and  recog- 
nizes them  both  very  clearly,  Charon  the  boatman,  who 
stands  at  his  oar  and  calls  to  her ; '°  and  the  "  black-browed, 
winged  Hades,"  who  leads  her  away  and  by  his  presence 
darkens  her  eyes  " — both  offices  of  Hermes.  In  this  last  we 
see  the  triple  character  which  the  Alcestian  Thanatos  bears : 
that  of  Hermes  who  gives  sleep  to  the  eyes  and  leads  the 

i^/f.,  25,  74-6.  2^/d-.,  49.  ^ //.,  i^:  S^4.  *3Ied.,  iiii. 

5  O.  T,  942.  ^  Kaibel,  15,  1.  2.  "^  Ale,  843-5,  "42- 

8 ^/,r.,  850-3.  ^Robert:   Thanatos,  y>-  ZS-  ^° A/c,  2e,2-6. 

^'^Alc,  259-63,47,  268-9. 


68  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [68 

soul  away ; '  that  of  ' kiiaq  v-'  bcpprm  KvavavyecL  (SXe-uv,  and  that  of 
Thanatos  himself,  indicated  by  the  wings,  Trrepo-og,  which  he 
wears  as  6atfx6vuv  -o  noipavu,^  for  though  the  daemons  are  often 
winged,  the  great  gods  are  never  so.3  Nowhere  in  the  Alccstis 
is  Charon  confused  with  Thanatos,  but  wherever  mentioned^ 
he  keeps  his  own  place  as  ferryman,  while  Thanatos  takes 
the  part  usually  assigned  on  the  vases  ^  to  the  Chthonian 
Hermes,  who,  by  the  way,  is  mentioned  only  once  in  this 
drama,  where  with  Hades  in  the  lower  world  he  receives 
Alcestis.^ 

Thanatos,  then,  as  w^e  have  seen,  heals  the  ills  of  life  by 
releasing  the  soul  from  the  body ;  Hermes  is  guardian  and 
guide  on  the  strange  and  untried  journey ;  and  Charon,  re- 
placing the  latter  in  Euripides,  ferries  the  souls  across  the 
river  of  death. 

The  true  god  of  the  dead  was  Hades ;  his  was  the  house 
where  they  dwelt,^  his  the  realm  through  which  they  wandered.^ 
He  was  the  receiver  of  the  dead,^  vsKpodkyiiovcq^  the  treasurer  of 
souls,'°  -raulaq,  to  whom  in  fierce  irony  Aias  sends  his  sword  also." 
Because  of  his  greed  he  is  called  oor/of/''  and  death  is  compared 
to  a  net,^3  as  if  like  a  fisherman  or  a  hunter  he  goes  about  seek- 
ing whom  he  may  ensnare ;  and  only  rarely  and   grudgingly 

'  See  above,  p.  56  ff.  "^  Ale,  1140. 

^Robert:  Thanatos,  p.  34,  quotes  Kaibel,  S9,  1.  4,  as  the  only  other  place  in 
which  Hades  is  called  winged. 

^Alc,  361,439-41. 

^  Benndorf :  Gr.  u.  Sic.  Vasenb.,  PL  27.  I;  Lecicyer :  Terres  Cttites  Ant.,  I, 
PL  T2  ;  et  aL 

^  Ale,  743-4;   the  only  place  in  Ettr.  where  he  is  mentioned,  Iivan.,  p.  lOO. 

''Ant.,  804 ;  et  aL,  oft.;   h  or  if  '  AiSov  is  very  common. 

8  Hades  is  the  name  in  the  Tragedians  for  the  whole  realm  of  the  dead. 

9  Pro.,  153  ;    Track.,  1085  ;  et  aL,  oft.     See  Rohde,  p.  192. 

10  Kaibel,  35b.  ''  Ai.,  658-60. 

12  O.  €.,  1688;  often.  "  Med.,  986-7  ;  Bac,  958  ;  et  aL 


69]  THE  OTHER   WORLD  69 

does  he  let  a  soul  return  to  earth. ^     He  is  supreme  in  his  own 

land,  where  he  rules  even  juptf  i?ewv,^  evwx'uv  aiaf  AlSuvev,^  jiaciXev  r' 

£if/j6ji',*  b  ~apd  rov  'Ajfpor-a  ii^fdf.^  There  he  examines  concerning 
deeds  done  in  the  body  :^ 

fiija^  yap  "AiS?/^  karlv  ev'&woQ  fipoTuv 
6EAToypd<i>(fi  6e.  TzdvT  eiruwa  (ppevi- 

and  like  another  Zeus  judges  crimes  :? 

KO/ceZ  ScKa^ei.  Tdfnr?.aK'^jiia'&\  ug  Myog^ 
Zei'f  a?i.?Mg  kv  Kafiovuiv  icTdraq  diKac 

but  he  justifies  the  innocent,^  Aibc  vEKpuv  aurijpoQ.  Plato,^  as  well  as 
Pindar  and  Orpheus/°  insists  on  judgments,  but  gives  them 
over  into  the  hands  of  Rhadamanthys  and  Minos,  of  whom  the 
Tragedians  say  nothing;"  while  Homer '^  gives  them,  as  far 
as  they  go,  to  the  Erinyes,  who  in  the  Tragedians '3  are  only 
helpers  of  Hades,  as  was  the  nether  Dike  ^*  presumably.  A 
IVth  century  inscription's  mentions  Sophrosyne  as  Hades' 
daughter. 

In  Homer,  Hades  is  a  dread  and  mysterious  power,'^  but 
loses  dignity  when  he  becomes  anthropomorphic.'?  He  was 
never  a  cult  god,'^  except  in  Elis  where  he  had  once  rendered 
service    in    some    mythological    battle.'^     Though    properly 

1  Fer.,  649-51,  w.  689-90  ;  et  at.  '^  Hec,  2. 

'  O.  C,  1559-60.  *  Per.,  629. 

^  S.  El.,  184.  ^  Eum.,  273-5. 

"f  A.  Sup.,  230-1  ;   O.  C,  1606.  ^  Ag.,  1387. 

9  Fl.  Rep.,  II,  366a.  10  Rohde,  pp.  566  ff.,  420  ff.,  500  ff. 

^'  Except  Cyc,  273-4,  which  is  not  to  the  point. 

12//.,  19:  259-60;  see  above,  p.  47,  with  n,3. 

^'  See  below,  p.  76  ff.  1*  Ant.,  451-2.  1*  Kaibel,  34. 

'6  Od.,  II  :   277  ;   //.,  5  :   845,  654;  et  al. 

^''11.,  20:  61-5;  5:  395-7;  et  al.  See  Buchhoh,  III.  a,  329-35,  for  the 
Homeric  Hades ;  Iwanowitsch,  pp.  90-3  for  epithets  in  Homer  and  the  Trage- 
dians. 

^'^  Rohde,  p.  113.  19  paus.,  6:  25  :  2. 


70  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  \jq 

acnov6o<:^  prayers'^  were  made  to  him ;  and  we  hear  in  a  poetic 
or  ironic  way,  of  his  songs  3  and  dances.'*  The  dead  were  his 
victims; 5  and  Clytaemnestra  gave  Agamemnon  the  third  blow 
as  a  votive  offering  to  him.^  Like  Hermes  he  is  sometimes 
called  upon  to  send  the  sleep  of  death  -.^ 

ii)  y'/.vKix  "Atcac, 
u  Aibg  avd^ai/iLJV, 
ei'vaaov  evvaaov  uKv-ira  jiopG) 
t'ov  fie?:EOv  ^•^iaaq- 

and:^ 

eI&e  fie  Koiuiceie  rov  SvaSai/iov' 
"Atdov  fj.e'kaiva  vmrepo^  r"  avdyKa- 

but  it  will  be  seen  that  this  is  done  through  agents,  LKVTTETg.  ndpt^) 
and  arayKa,  which  very  probably  stand  for  Hermes.  In  another 
instance  we  find  him  sending  death  by  the  sword  given  to 
Aias,  and  for  this  Teucer  calls  him  the  fierce  workman.^ 

Hades,  then,  in  the  Tragedians  is  an  autocrat  with  unlimited 
sway  in  his  own  dominion,  greedy  of  sovereignty,  but  just  in 
the  exercise  of  his  power,  never  appearing  on  earth,  but  trans- 
acting his  business  there  by  means  of  his  ministers. 

The  whole  realm  of  the  dead  was  called  Hades,  or  the  house 
of  Hades.  Neither  Homer ^°  nor  the  Tragedians  were  very 
sure  whether  it  was  situated  below  the  ground  or  in  the  ex- 
treme west.  The  favorite  Homeric  term  is  Erebus,"  a  word  of 
Semitic  origin  and  meaning  "  evening"  or  "  west,"  but  rather 
rare  in  the  Tragedians,"  showing  that  it  had  no  strong  hold  on 
the  language.     The   earliest  native  Greek  idea  was  probably 

1^/^.,  424.  2(5.   C,  1558-64;  et  al. 

^Sep.,  868-9  ;  £■  El-,  I45  ;  et  ai.  *  E.  Sup.,  75. 

^  Ale,  25-6,  74-6;  H.  il/.,, 451-3.  ^  Ag.,  1385-7;   Fhoen.,  1575-6. 

7  Track.,  1040-2.  ^Hip.,  1387-8. 

^  Ai.,  1035. 

10  Od.,  II :   I-I2;  //.,  20:  61-2  ;  see  Buchholz,  I.  a,  49-52,  336-8. 

"  //.,  16  :   327  ;  et  al.,  oft. 

■2  Or.,  176  ;  et  al.;  Iwanowitsch,  p.  89. 


yil  THE   OTHER   WORLD  7 1 

that  the  land  of  the  dead  was  underground,  as  we  may  judge 
from  the  great  "  beehive  "  tombs  built  for  them  there,  and  from 
the  fact  that  there  was  no  consistency  in  orienting  the  dead, 
either  in  the  Mycenaean  age,'  or  in  Dipylon  or  classical  times 
in  Athens.^  As  all  existing  hero  chapels,  beginning  with  the 
famous  Harpy  Tomb,  open  to  the  west,  and  the  lonians  we 
know  were  noted  for  burying  the  dead  so  that  they  might  look 
toward  the  setting  sun,3  it  seems  likely  that  these  eastern 
Greeks  borrowed  the  idea  from  some  of  their  non-Hellenic 
neighbors  and  passed  it  on  to  their  brethren.  Homer,  because 
of  his  Ionian  feeling,  elaborated  this  theory  most,  and  perhaps, 
also,  because  it  was  new ;  but  the  old  was  still  strong  in  men's 
minds.  The  Tragedians  speak  of  Hades  as  eanepov  -Qeov,^  but 
iKarax^ovoc'AcSac  IS  a  much  more  common  term;5  under  Orphic 
influence  there  is  an  inclination  to  place  the  abode  of  souls  in 
the  upper  air.^  As  we  have  seen,^  this  realm  is  not  a  pleasant 
place,  but  secret,^  dark,^  full  of  groans,'°  vague  and  dreadful. 

But  the  Periclean  Greeks  were  not  without  descriptions  of 
the  land  of  the  dead  from  the  hands  of  the  poets.  They  had 
not  only  the  Odyssey  but  the  more  specialized  epics  of  the 
Minyad  and  the  Nosti,^^  the  former  of  which,  Pausanias  "  tells 
us,  Polygnotus  followed  in  general  in  his  great  painting  at  the 
Lesche.  These  descriptions  appealed  to  the  imagination 
rather  than  to  the  belief  of  the  people;  as  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  Aristophanes  in  the  Frogs  adheres  to  them  much 
more  closely  than  do  the  Tragedians.     Still,  some  such  gen- 

1  Tsountas  and  Manatt,  pp.  97,  89. 

^  Brueckner  u.  Pernice,  see  Plan  of  the  Cemetery, 

s  Pint.  Solon,  10.  *  O.  T,  178.     Cf.  hvvxio>v  ava^  O.  C,  1559. 

*  Pkoen.,  810 ;  Ai.,  ^^l]  et  al.  "  See  above,  p.  26. 

■fSee  above,  p.  15.  *  O.  C,  1552;  et  al.,  oft. 

9  Ai.,  394  ;  et  al.,  oft.  '"  Pro.,  433  ;  et  al. 

"  For  fragments  of  these  see  A'inkel:  Epic.  Graec.  Frag.,  pp.  215-7,  52-6. 

'2  Paus.,  10:  28:  7. 


72  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [72 

eral  sketch  must  have  been  in  the  mind  of  the  latter.  In  the 
prayer  for  Oedipus,'  we  have  the  plain  of  the  dead,  and  the 
Stygian  dwelling,  and  the  dog  growling  at  strangers,  but  in 
the  next  breath  a  prayer  for  eternal  sleep.  The  rivers  of 
Erebus  were  a  striking  feature  well  worked  out  by  Homer,' 
especially  the  Styx,  that  terrible  name  by  which  the  gods 
swore  their  most  solemn  oaths.3  The  Tragedians  frequently 
mention  the  Styx,  Cocytus  and  Acheron,  and  Sophocles 
speaks  of  'A/Ja  TzayKoivov  A<>mf,'*  but  their  typography  is  by  no 
means  clear ;  and  it  is  probable  that  the  words  really  mean 
little  more  than  woe  and  wailing. 

In  Homer,  Tartarus  and  Erebus  are  carefully  distinguished ; 
the  former  is  for  overthrown  gods  and  situated  as  far  below 
Erebus  as  heaven  is  high  above  the  earth.s  Aeschylus  still 
regards  Tartarus  as  a  place  of  punishment  for  gods,^  but  makes 
no  clear  distinction  between  it  and  Hades ;  7  nor  does  Sophocles,* 
nor  Euripides.9  Whether  or  not  the  Homeric  epics  teach,  as 
Iwanowitsch  holds,  that  there  is  no  future  punishment  for 
mankind,  the  Mmyad,  followed  by  Polygnotus,  insists  strongly 
that  there  is  ; '°  and  the  Tragedians  hold  with  them.  Aeschylus 
tells  of  the  threats  of  the  Furies,"  of  the  "  other  Zeus  "  who 
punishes  crimes,"  and  of  the  punishment  of  Sisyphus.'^  So  too 
Euripides  tells  of  Tantalus  and  Ixion.'"*  They  speak  also  very 
clearly  of  future  rewards  for  those  who  are  good  and  pious,  as 

1(9.  C,  1556-78.  2 1?,/.,  10:  513-5. 

*See  Biichholz,  III.  b,  317-8,  for  Homeric  rivers. 

^i".  EL,  137-8  ;   see  Sep.,  690,  855  ;    Per.,  669  ;  et  al.     See  Iwanowitsch,  pp. 
84-5,  for  refs, 

*//.,  8:  13-16.     See  Btichhoh,  I.  a,  52.  ®  Pro.,  219-21. 

■f  Pro.,  1028-9,  <?^  (i^-  ^  O.  C,  1389-90. 

*  Or.,  265.     See  Iwanowiisch,  pp.  86-7,  for  refs. 

1"  Paus.,  4  :  33  :  7  ;  10  :  31  :  9-I I  ;  et  al.  oft. 

"  Bum.,  268-76  ;  et  al,  ^^  A.  Sup.,  230-1,  415-6. 

"  A.  fr.  221.  "  Or.,  982-5  ;  H.  M.,  1298. 


73]  THE  OTHER   WORLD  73 

we  have  seen.^  The  best  that  Homer  could  do  for  ordinary 
people  was  to  let  their  arfw/.a  wander  over  the  gloomy  asphodel 
meadows  \'^  but  by  Plato's  time,  under  the  influence  of  Musaeus 
and  his  son,  the  just  and  pious  were  supposed  to  spend  their 
time  in  pleasure,  which  the  populace  imagined  to  consist  in 

feastmg    and    drinking,    i/yrjaauevoi  Kd'AMarov  apsTTJc;  fiiadop  juldr/v  aluviov.^ 

But  no  feasting  scenes,  otherwise  than  the  simple  offering  of  a 
basket  of  cakes  or  fruit.^  appear  on  Athenian  tombstones  until 
a  late  date,  though  on  Spartan  and  Boeotian  they  are  common. 
The  Tragedians  say  nothing  of  feasting ;  rather,  poetic  tradi- 
tion developed,  out  of  the  picture  of  the  Elysian  plain,  "where 
life  is  easiest  for  men,"  and  to  which  Menelaus  and  Helen 
were  to  be  transported,^  the  fancy  of  the  "isle  of  the  blessed  :"^ 

Kal  T(I)  nXavr/Tri  MtviTleu  -Qeuv  Ttdpa 
uanapuv  KaToiKEiv  vijadv  ean  ixdpaifiov 

Achilles  was  to  be  there,  and  Cadmus  and  Harmonia.^  Homer 
had  placed  it  at  the  end  of  the  earth  and  presumably  in  the 
west;  but  Euripides  locates  it,  once  at  least,^ 

AeVK?/V  KOT'  CLKTTjV  IVTOQ  IEv^eIvOV  TTOpOV. 

Farnell  9  says  there  is  a  legend  of  the  Chthonian  Cronus  ruling 
over  the  isles  of  the  blest  and  the  departed  heroes.  In  the 
Orphic  Argonaiitica''°  there  is  said  to  be  in  the  fabulous  N.  W. 
Europe,  near  the  golden-flowing  Acheron,  a  city  Hermioneia, 

in  which  dwells  ykvi]  ScKaaJTaruv  dvdpuTTUv,  oiaiv  dnocpd-tjiievoii;  aveaig  vavTioio 


1  See  above,  pp.  28,  50. 

2  Od.,  II  :  539.  3  /y,  /j>^^,^  11^  .53  cd. 

*  Come,  PL  93 ;  common  on  funeral  vases.  See  also  H.  Von  Fritz  :  Zu  der 
Griech.  Toteumahlreliefs,  in  Mittheil.,  1896. 

s  Od.,  4  :  563-7.  6  }j^i^  1676-7. 

■'  Atid.,  1260-2;  Bac,  1338-9.         ^  And.,  1262  ;  /.  T.,  436;  see  Bac,  1361-2. 

^Farnell :  Gk.  Cults,  I,  30;  see  Hesiod :  Works  and  Days,  169;  Pindar,  01., 
2,  70.      (I  owe  these  references  to  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Parnell.) 

^^  Lines  1135-47;  see  Rohde,  p.  200,  for  further  refs. 


74  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [74 

Homer  calls  Hades'  i^v'KapTao  Kpare/wiu,  and  the  country  itself 
wide-gated.^  The  Tragedians  often  mention  the  gates  of 
Hades,3  and  as  guardian  of  these,  the  dog.  Sophocles  calls 
him/ 

"Atdov  Tp'iKpavov  aKVAaK,',  anpdcfiaxov  repac;, 

and  describes  him  as  couching  at  the  gate  of  Hades,^  where 
Hermes  is  implored  to  keep  him  quiet.  Admetus^  calls  him 
6  n?MVTuvoc  Kvojv ;  and  kvwv  he  always  is  in  Homer  ;7  whence  Pau- 
sanias^  argues  with  much  force  that  he  was  not  originally  a 
dog,  but  more  probably  a  serpent,  as  kvuv  is  a  term  for  any 
fierce  beast.  In  the  vase  paintings,  especially  the  later  ones, 
he  appears  frequently  as  a  three-headed  dog,  and  that  type 
had  probably  become  fixed  before  the  Vth  century.  In  the 
Tragedians  he  figures  chiefly  as  the  captive  of  Herakles  in  his 
famous  visit  to  the  underworld.^  On  the  tombstones  we  do 
not  find  the  three-headed  monster;  and  though  a  dog  often 
appears,'"  it  is  probably  the  pet  of  the  household  or  the  com- 
panion of  the  hunter,  and  not  the  savage  guardian  of  the 
lower  regions. 

The  only  other  dweller  of  the  land  of  the  dead  whom  Poly- 
gnotus  introduces  into  his  paintings  is  the  horrid  demon 
Eurynomus,  who,  according  to  Pausanias,"  is  not  mentioned  in 
the  literature  up  to  that  time  and  may  be  an  allegorical  figure. 
But  the  Tragedians  tell  us  that  Erebus  had  other  inhabitants. 
There  dwelt  Night,"  whose  anger  even  Zeus  feared; '3  and  her 
daughters  the  Moirai ;  '*  and  those  other  daughters,  the  dread- 

1  0(/.,  1 1  :  277.  2  //^  23  :  74. 

^  Med,  1234  ;  eia/.  *  Track.,  1097-8. 

5  a  C,  1568-78.  "-Ale,  360. 

'  See  Iwanowitsch,  pp.  103-5.               ^ Pans.,  3  :  25  :  4-5. 

^  H.  M.,  24-5;  et  al. 

10  Conze,  PL  23,  28,  130  (no.  677),  et  al.  oft. 

^^Paus.,  10  :  28  :  7.  '^  Or.,  174-6. 

13  //.,  14  :  259-61.  "  Farnell:  G.  C,  I,  80-1. 


75]  THE  OTHER   WORLD  75 

ful  Keres,  of  whom  we  hear  so  much  in  Homer/  and  whom 
Megara  pictures  her  sons  as  marrying,^  and  whom  later  Lyssa 
saj^s  Herakles  is  calHng  up  by  his  bellowing.3  The  Sirens, 
though  not  actually  dwellers  in  the  other  world,  are  by  Homer 
placed  on  the  way  thither ;  '*  and  from  their  frequent  represen- 
tations on  tombstones  from  the  Vlth  century  down,^  and  their 
office  of  carrying  souls  as  depicted  on  the  Harpy  Tomb,^ 
they  may  have  shared  with  Charon  the  duty  of  transporting 
the  souls  of  the  dead  to  Hades.  Euripides  mentions  them  as 
Xi^owf  Kopai,  and  singers  of  mournful  songs. ^  Nemesis  was 
another  daemon  closely  connected  with  the  dead,  ready  to  re- 
sent any  insulting  word  regarding  them.^  The  Sphinx  was 
sent  up  from  Hades,9  and  had  a  fitting  place  on  the  tomb.'° 
Another  uncomfortable  neighbor  was  lambe  or  Baubo,  men- 
tioned in  the  Frogs,  whom  M.  Heuzey "  supposes  to  be  the 
antitype  of  "  the  numerous  caricatures  of  old  women  and 
nurses  found  among  the  terra-cottas  placed  about  the  dead." 
A  more  prominent  figure  is  Hecate,  who,  though  not  men- 
tioned in  Homer,  is  one  of  the  chief  characters  on  the  vases  of 
the  IVth  century.  Hesiod  first  mentions  her  as  a  victim  of 
the  anger  of  Artemis,  whose  follower  and  chthonian  double 
she  became;  and  Farnell "  thinks  she  was  of  Phrygian  origin 
and  came  into  Athens  about  the  middle  of  the  Vlth  century. 
Before  the  Peloponnesian  War,  her  image  was  placed  at  the 
doors  of  the  Athenians  to  avert  evil. ^3  She  presided  over 
graves,  and  her  images  stood  at  crossroads  to  keep  ghosts 
down.     "  The  character  of  Hecate  KZa^oi-^of,  the  guardian  of 

1  Buchhoh,  III.  a,  318-21.  2^  M.,  480-3. 

»  H.  M.,  870.  *  Od.,  12:  39-46. 

*  Conze,  35,  94,  et  al.  ®  Collig^ion  :  Hist.  Sc.  Gr.,  I,  261-5. 

"^  Hel.,  167-71.  8  ^  £1^  yg2,  1467  ;  see  Farnell,  II,  488-93. 

'  Phoen.,  807-11.  I''  Conze,  97,  10,  et  al. 

"Quoted  by  F.  Lenormant,  s.  v.  Gephyrismoi,  in  Dar.  et  Sag.,  IV. 

^'^  Farnell,  II,  507  (quoting  Strabo,  473),  508.  '^^  Farnell,  II,  p.  509. 


76  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [76 

the  gate,  is  shown  by  the  key  which  appears  in  the  hands  of 
many  of  her  figures,  and  possibly  this  alludes  not  only  to  the 
gate  of  the  house  and  the  city  but  to  the  gate  of  hell,  which 
she  might  be  supposed  to  keep,  as  the  key  is  known  to  have 
been  also  the  badge  of  Hades."  In  Caria  there  was  an  annual 
festival  of  the  key  in  honor  of  Zeus  and  Hecate  his  wife/ 
Sophocles  ^  represents  her  with  her  head  crowned  with  oak 
leaves  and  serpents.  Alcamenes  was  the  first  to  give  her 
three  heads  and  three  bodies.3  To  this  triple  Hecate  living  in 
the  midst  of  infernal  monsters,  the  whip  is  often  given  to 
maintain  order  among  the  shades.* 

In  the  Tragedians  Hecate  is  confused  with  Artemis,5 

'ih  TrdrvLa  rral  Aaroi'f  'E/cara, 

and  with  Persephone,^ 

'RlvoSia  ■&vyarEp  Aa/iarpoc;. 

She  is  the  mistress  of  spells  invoked  by  Medea  ;7  and,  ruling 
over  journeys  by  day  and  night,  the  Chorus^  implore  her  to 
aid  Creusa  in  poisoning  Ion.  She  sends  ghosts  ^  and  madness  ;^° 
and,  as  in  the  later  vase-paintings,  she  carries  the  torch  at  the 
marriage  of  the  soul  to  Hades." 

The  only  daemons  whom  Buchholz  will  admit  into  the  circle 
of  the  chthonians  with  Hades  and  Persephone  are  the  Erinyes." 
Aeschylus  calls  them  daughters  of  Night  ^3  and  dwellers  of 
Tartarus,'*  but  Sophocles  calls  them  children  of  Earth  and 

J  Farnell,  II,  501-12,  556,  602.  "^  S.  fr.  490. 

•^  Faus.,  2  :  30  :  2;  see  Baumeister,  I,  p.  632, 

*  G.  Fougeres  in  Dar.  et  Sag.,  IV,  p.  1 156. 

^  Phoen.,  109-10.  ^  Ion,  1048. 

^tI/^^.,  395-7.  8 /^„^  1048-51. 

^  Ilel.,  569-70;  ^«/.,  1197-1204.  ^^  Hip.,  142-4. 

"  Tro.,  323-4;  Mon.  Ined.,  VI,  PL  42  B  :  ^Z  a  I. 

"^•^  Buchholz,  III.  a,  345-51;  III.  b,  318. 

1^  Eum.,  321-2,  e(  al.  "  Eum.,  71-3,  el  al- 


yyl  THE  OTHER   WORLD  77 

Darkness/  Yik  -f  ««'  '^^orov  Kopai.  Aeschylus  is  fond  of  using 
their  name  in  connection  with  evil,  as  when  he  calls  Helen  an 
Erinys  of  bridal  lamentation,^  or  Tydeus,  'Epmof  K/rj-f/pa  -^  the 
destruction  of  war  he  calls,  ■rvatava  t6viV  '^nviw.'*  They  are  called 
'Apni^  and  K/7p£c^  and  ixdarup,''  and  they  seem  to  have  partaken 
of  the  nature  of  all  of  these.^  They  were  black  in  color,^ 
KeXaival  i?  'Epivreg,  like  h/KOToi.  M''yff,'°  angry  dogs,  and  from  their 
eyes  distilled  blood."  The  Priestess  of  Delphi  describes 
them:"  "A  wondrous  troop  of  women  sits  sleeping  in  the 
seats,  though  not  women  but  Gorgons  I  call  them  .  .  .  wing- 
less and  black  in  appearance,  abominable  in  kind.  And  they 
snore  with  unapproachable  breath,  and  from  their  eyes  they 
distil  hateful  violence.  Their  dress  is  fit  to  wear  neither  at  the 
images  of  the  gods  nor  in  the  dwellings  of  men."  They  are 
mad,  and  are  woven  about  with  crowding  serpents.'3  It  is  no- 
ticeable that  though  in  the  CJioephoroe  and  the  other  plays  they 
are  visible  to  Orestes  only,  in  the  Eiimenides  they  are  visible 
to  all,  as  is  necessary  from  the  nature  of  the  play.  In  Sopho- 
cles they  are  many-handed  and  many- footed,^'*  and  he  speaks 
of  the  twin-fury ,^5  as  though  there  were  but  two.  Euripides 
says  there  are  three  ;'^  and  his  description  differs  a  little  from 
that  of  Aeschylus: ^7  "Do  you  not  see  this  snake  of  Hades, 
that  she  wishes  to  slay  me,  with  horrid  vipers  fringed  against 
me  ?  And  breathing  forth  from  her  garments  fire  and  murder, 
she  beats  with  her  wings,  bearing  my  mother  in  her  arms,  a 

'  o.  C,  40,  106.  '^  Ag.,  749. 

»5^/.,574.  *  Ag.,  e^s^  et  al. 

s  Eutn.,  417.  8  E.  EL,  1252  ;  O.  T.,  472. 

'  Dr.,  1546.  *See  Jwanowitsch,  pp.  95-9,  for  epithets. 

"^  Ag.,  463-4;  et  al.  10  Cho.,  1054. 

"  Cho.,  1058.  "  Eum.,  46-56. 

^^  Ezim.,  67  ;  Cho.,  1048-50.  "5.  EL,  488. 

'55.  EL,  1080.  '6Cr.,4o8. 

"/.  T,  285-90;  see  Or.,  255-6;  et  al. 


yS  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  \j^ 

rocky  mass,  that  she  may  throw  it  upon  nie!"  The  effect  on 
their  victim  was  what  might  be  expected  Orestes  has  fits  of 
madness,  eats  no  food  nor  indulges  in  the  bath  ;  and  though 
he  has  lucid  intervals,  in  these  he  weeps  and  laments.'  He 
could  not  have  endured  this  torture  long,  if  Apollo  had  not 
lent  him  arrows  wherewith  he  might  gain  respite.^ 

We  are  most  impressed  with  the  function  of  the  Erinyes  to 
haunt  a  matricide,  since  this  is  the  leading,  or  at  least  a 
prominent  theme  in  no  less  than  three  plays,  Eumenides, 
Orestes  and  Iphigeiieia  in  Taiiris ;  and  comes  as  a  climax  into 
the  Choephoroe  and  Euripides'  Electra  (though  not  in  Sopho- 
cles');  in  all  of  which  Orestes  is  tortured  for  a  morally  right 
action,  since  it  is  bidden  by  the  purest  of  the  gods,  his  natural 
instinct  struggling  against  the  divine  command.  Like  angry 
dogs  they  follow  him  always,3  sucking  his  blood  till  he  be- 
comes a  shadow,'^  and  threatening  to  take  him  alive  to  Hades 
and  torture  him  there.s  They  protest  in  the  Euvienidcs  that 
they  punish  only  kindred  blood,^  but  in  the  Cliocplioroe  the 
blood  of  Aegisthus  is  a  third  draught  for  the  Erinys  ^  who 
avenges  the  stains  on  the  house  of  Agamemnon.^  In  the 
Septem  they  come  at  the  curse  of  Oedipus  to  slay  his  sons;^ 
but  none  feel  their  presence  as  does  the  matricide  Orestes. 
Otherwise  they  are  good  and  kind,'°  but  fear  of  them  keeps 
men  from  murder  and  evil-doing." 

In  Sophocles  their  mission  is  somewhat  different.  They  do 
not  fall  on  Orestes  at  all ;  but  Clytaemnestra  fears  them,"  and 
Electra  implores  them  with  the  other  chthonians  to  help  her 
and  her  brother  in  their  enterprise; '3  and  says  that  the  slaying 

1  Or.,  34-45,  et  al.  ^  Or.,  268-70. 

^  CJio.,  924  ;  Eum.,  75-7;  et  al.  * Erc??i.,  264-5,  3°^,  305. 

5  Eum.,  267-8.  ^  Etitn.,  210,  604-5. 

"  C/io.,  577-8.  8  Cho.,  651  ;  et  al.  oft. 

*  Sep.,  720-5,  et  al.  '"  Eum.,  313-5,  895  ;  Sep.,  699-701. 

"  Eum.,  494-524.  !'■'  ^'.  EL,  275-6.  '='6'.  EL,  110-7  ;  et  aL 


79]  THE  OrUEl^   WORLD  yg 

of  Aegisthus  will  destroy  the  twin-fury,"  as  if  the  sacrifice  of 
the  really  guilty  man  would  stay  their  anger.  Oedipus  in- 
vokes the  Erinyes  to  carry  out  his  curses  on  his  sons^  for 
their  harsh  treatment  of  him.  But  outrage  on  the  dead  as 
well  as  unjust  death  claimed  their  attention,  as  is  shown  by 
the  threat  3  to  Creon  and  to  the  enemies  of  Aias,  as  well  as 
those  to  the  slayers  of  La'ius  and  Herakles. 

In  Euripides,  again,  though  the  Erinyes  are  not  limited  to 
the  chastisement  of  kindred  slaughter,'^  we  have  the  tortures  of 
the  matricide  Orestes  with  added  detail.  In  the  CJwcpJioroe, 
the  Erinyes  sieze  him  immediately,  but  in  the  Orestes,^  they 
do  not  come  upon  him  until  at  night  when  he  is  watching  be- 
side his  mother's  body.  In  the  EnmcJiides,  Athene  by  her 
judgment  and  her  persuasions  frees  him ;  but  in  Euripides  she 
drives  them  away  with  her  Gorgon-headed  shield,^  and  instead 
of  departing  satisfied  and  with  blessings,  they  rush  in  terror 
into  the  chasm/ and  do  not  all  acquiesce  in  Athene's  decision.^ 

It  is  Sophocles  who  draws  the  picture  of  the  Grove  of  the 
Eumenides,  one  of  the  finest  bits  of  natural  scenery  in  the 
Tragedians.  Here  among  the  bay,  the  olive  and  the  vine,  the 
nightingales  sing  sweetly,  undisturbed  by  human  sound,  and  a 
limpid  stream  flows  through  the  untrodden  grass.9  Expiation 
for  entering  their  grove  must  be  made  by  pouring  a  triple 
libation  of  spring  water  and  honey  from  a  cup  wreathed  with 
fresh-shorn  lamb's  wool;  thrice  nine  branches  of  olive  must  be 
laid  on  the  place;  and  after  a  prayer  calling  them  Eumenides 
and  spoken  inaudibly,  the  trespasser  must  slip  away  without 
looking  back.'° 

^  S.  EL,  1080.  2  o.  C,  1391,  1433-4. 

^Ant.,  1074-6;  Ai.,  835-44:  O.  T.,  471-2;  Iracli.,  808-9. 

*  Med.,  1389;  E.  EL,  1546-8.  ^  Or.,  401-2,  408. 

^  E.  EL,  1252-7.  "^  E.  EL,  1270-2. 

^  I.  T.,  970-1  ;  see  940-86.  '  O.  C,  16-8,  124-32,  155-60. 

"  O.  C,  466-90. 


8o  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  IN  ATTIC  TRAGEDY  [go 

The  Eumenides  had  a  regular  cult  at  Athens,  sharing  in  the 
worship  of  Athene  in  the  abode  of  Erechtheus,  receiving  the 
first  fruits  of  the  sacrifices,  honored  with  blazing  torches,  with 
processions  of  youths  and  women  in  purple  robes,  with  burnt- 
offerings  and  songs  and  libations.'  And  in  the  statues  which 
the  Athenians  erected  of  them  there  was  nothing  horrible.^ 
They  were  worshiped  also  at  the  hearth  of  the  home  with 
wineless  soothing  libations.3 

The  idea  of  death  was  never  absent  from  the  mind  of  the 
Greek.  Turn  where  he  would,  engage  in  what  occupation  or 
pleasure  or  duty  he  saw  fit,  the  eyes  of  the  dead  and  of  the 
mighty  gods  of  the  dead  were  upon  him.  Sacrifices  and 
prayers  to  the  deities  of  high  heaven  might  be  slighted  or 
omitted,  but  those  to  the  y^''^''""  never.  Their  power  arose 
from  the  ground  on  which  he  trod,  and  penetrated  even  to  his 
dreams  and  to  his  most  secret  plans ;  it  dogged  every  step  of 
his  life,  and  extended  into  the  remotest  future.  The  Olympians 
were  a  gay  and  joyous  folk,  content  that  mankind  should  be 
reasonably  happy  and  prosperous,  since  this  was  to  their  in- 
terest ;  and  however  vindictive  they  might  be,  their  vengeance 
of  necessity  stopped  with  the  dissolution  of  soul  from  body. 
But  they  of  the  lower  world  were  ever  envious  and  grudging 
against  him  who  enjoyed  the  blessings  they  had  lost,  regard- 
ing him  with  a  vigilance  unforgetting,  unrelenting  and  unre- 
mitting, not  to  be  put  off  with  excuses  or  appeased  with  paltry 
offerings.  Man,  the  living  man,  owed  them  a  heavy  rent  for 
the  brief  lease  of  his  tenement,  and  they  exacted  payment  to 
the  uttermost  farthing.  What  wonder  that  Plato's  teaching 
fell  on  charmed  but  unbelieving  ears;  that  Stoics  and  Epi- 
cureans alike,  finding  the  burden  too  great  to  be  borne,  de- 
clared there  is  no  hereafter ;  that  the  populace  seized  upon 
every  new  orgy,  and  welcomed  every  foreign  god  of  the  dead, 

'  Eum.,  804-7,  S33-6,  S54-7,  1022  ff.,  1033-47. 

2  Pans.,  I  :  28:  6.  ^  Enm.,  106-9. 


8 1  THE  OTHER  WORLD  [8 1 

like  the  mystic  Dionysus  or  the  solemn  deep-eyed  Serapis ;  or 
that  of  all  the  gods,  most  popular  by  far  was  Asklepios  the 
healer ;  for  he  prolonged  man's  little  span  of  life  and  for  a  brief 
moment  held  back  the  curtain  which  must  envelop  him. 
Rightly  was  the  disembodied  soul  named  oKid,  for  it  was  the 
shadow  which  the  Greek  could  never  elude  or  escape. 


VITA 


Lucia  Catherine  Graeme  Grieve  was  born  of  Scotch  parents 
in  Dublin,  Ireland,  April  30,  1862.  Her  early  education  was 
received  in  Mrs,  J.  T.  Benedict's  French  and  English  School 
in  New  York  city.  In  1878  she  entered  Wellesley  College  in 
the  Academic  Department,  and  in  1883  received  the  A.  B. 
degree.  For  the  next  ten  years  she  was  engaged  in  teaching 
in  preparatory  schools  and  colleges.  In  1893  she  received 
the  A.  M.  degree  from  Wellesley  College  for  work  in  Greek 
and  Roman  Philosophy.  From  1893  till  1898  she  was  a 
student  in  Columbia  University,  her  subjects  being  Greek, 
Sanskrit  and  Hebrew,  under  the  direction  of  Professors  Mer- 
riam,  Perry  and  Wheeler,  Jackson  and  Gottheil.  The  summer 
of  1894  was  spent  in  the  British  Museum  in  the  study  of  the 
Greek  Vases,  under  the  general  guidance  of  Prof  A.  C.  Mer- 
riam.  During  the  year  1896-7,  she  attended  courses  in  Oxford 
University,  England,  given  by  Prof  Percy  Gardner,  Mr.  Haigh> 
Mr.  Sidgwick,  Prof  Macdonnell,  and  Canon  Driver. 

(83) 


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14  DAY  USE 

LOAN  DEPT. 

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